The Bank of China, the country's foreign exchange bank, said its asset quality improved substantially during the past year.

The bank said it had disposed of more than 250 billion yuan (around US$30 billion) in non-performing assets.

The bank's bad asset ratio was reduced to some 5 percent from 16 percent a year earlier. Chinese banks are trying to cut bad loans to meet the competition from overseas rivals, such as Citigroup and HSBC, which will be allowed to operate more freely on the mainland from the end of 2006.

At the end of 2003, the Bank of China and China Construction Bank both received a US$22.5 billion capital injection from the government.

(CCTV.com February 8, 2005)