State-owned companies make more money

CHINA / National

State-owned companies make more money

(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-28 09:15

Profits at China's state-owned companies rose sharply in the first half
of this year, rising 31.5 percent to 753.5 billion yuan ($99.7 billion),
reports said on Friday.

Companies owned by the central government saw profits rise 20.2 percent
to 541.8 billion yuan ($71.7 billion), the Xinhua News Agency said,
citing the Finance Ministry. Profits at companies owned by lower-level
governments rose 36.5 percent to 211.7 billion yuan ($28 billion).

The government is trying to create an elite group of 30 to 50
national-level companies that are to be industry leaders in banking, oil
and other fields.

Hundreds of other companies have been shut down or spun off to fend for
themselves.

Private Chinese companies also have seen profits rise amid a boom that
saw the economy expand by 11.9 percent last quarter.

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Anti-money laundering screws tightened

CHINA / National

Anti-money laundering screws tightened

By Xin Zhiming (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-07-27 06:52

The central bank has directed insurance and securities institutions to
set up an anti-money laundering mechanism this year, and is likely to ask
some non-financial sectors to do the same.

"We need the insurance and securities sectors to set up an (internal) arm
and devise rules against money laundering this year," Tang Xu, head of
the anti-money laundering department of the People's Bank of China
(PBOC), the country's central bank, said during a live Internet
conference yesterday.

This is PBOC's latest move to intensify its fight against money
laundering. Earlier, it ordered the banking industry to devise a system
to monitor and report dubious money flow.

Some specific non-financial institutions such as law and accounting firms
and auction houses are the others that could be directed to set up
similar mechanisms, Tang said.

"We will study these sectors one by one and map out reporting and
inspection regimes for dubious transactions."

Securities and insurance companies will have to send data on dubious
deals to the anti-money laundering monitoring center of the central bank
from October 1, he said.

China intensified efforts to improve its anti-money laundering regime by
passing an anti-money laundering law late last year and issuing rules on
checking the possible flow of funds for terrorists last month.

It has joined hands with the Ministry of Public Security to set up a
network to check the identity of banks' customers. The system went into
force in late June, and all the country's banks have joined it, PBOC
deputy governor Su Ning told a press briefing yesterday.

If a bank official wants to check a customer's identity he just needs to
click a few times for the computerized image of his ID to pop up on the
screen, the PBOC official said.

(China Daily 07/27/2007 page1)

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