Vice Premier Huang Ju said Tuesday that the reform of China's state-owned commercial banks will impact the whole financial system.

Addressing senior managers and members of the board of China Construction Bank (CCB) Limited inaugurated Tuesday, the vice premier said the Chinese leadership has said that the reforms must succeed.

The Bank of China and CCB were selected earlier this year by the central government from the country's four giant state-owned banks for trial share-holding reforms. The banks, troubled by high ratios of non-performing assets and inefficiency, are facing growing competition from international banks in China.

The CCB has been transformed into a joint-stock commercial bank controlled by the state, whose official title is the China Construction Bank Limited. Its five stock-holders are the Central Huijin Investment Co., Ltd., China Jianyin Investment Co., Ltd., State Grid Corporation, Shanghai Baosteel Group Company, and ChinaYangtze Power Co.

The new CCB has an aggregate capital of 194.23 billion yuan (23.4 billion US dollars), with a total of 194.23 billion shares.

The vice premier urged the CCB to improve management to ensure the success of the reform.

Late last month, the Bank of China became a joint-stock bank, with the Central Huijin Investment Company Limited currently owning 100 percent of the bank's stocks on behalf of the state.

Huang called on the CCB to further deepen reform in various fields and strive to make big breakthroughs in corporate governance structure, business growth mechanism, financial accounting system, risk management system, and incentive and control mechanisms.

Zhang Enzhao, the former CCB president, became the new bank's chairman of the board of directors, while Chang Zhenming, a former senior executive of the China International Trust and Investment Corp. (CITIC), was appointed president of the China Construction Bank Limited.

(Xinhua News Agency  September 22, 2004)