issued by the world bank group, after establishing enterprise and individual credit information databases, china ’ s credit information index rose to 4 from 3 in 2005, comparing with the average level of 1. 9 for asia, 5 for oecd countries and 6 for the united states, which was the highest. accordingly, china ’ s access to credit ranked among the top 16 countries in the world, higher than the overall improvement of china ’ s business environment in 2006. the enterprise and individual credit information databases were established based not only on china ’ s own circumstances but also on international best practice, which mainly reflected in the following aspects : first, they were national unified databases. the databases were established with an aim to fully reflect the credit status of enterprises and individuals. therefore, as people move from region to region and business of enterprises covers many regions, only when the information collected from all regions across the country are included in the databases, can the credit status of enterprises and individuals be fully recorded. at present, the nationwide database network supports any institution ’ s access from any province, city or county, and it includes the credit data of enterprises and individuals from all over the country. second, the database has a wide coverage of institutions. one of the goals to establish such databases was to share information among specialized credit extension institutions. currently, the two databases have covered commercial banks, non - bank financial institutions, rural credit cooperatives and housing provident fund centers. efforts are now being made to explore ways of including other institutions such as collateral companies, leasing companies, telecommunication enterprises and public utility enterprises in the databases. third, the databases has a wide coverage of data. over the past two or three years, the databases have set up unified credit files for more than 560 million people and 11. 6 million enterprises. the information collected in the database could be divided into several categories : first, basic information of enterprises and individuals, such as id, address, etc. with the strong support of the ministry of public security and the general administration of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine, the online verification of citizens ’ identity and institutional codes on the counter of commercial banks will be launched in the near term. through this way, commercial banks could verify individual ’ s identity and enterprise ’ institutional code online when opening settlement account or conducting credit business, etc. second, banking credit information, such as information of loan, credit card, collateral, etc. third, debt information of enterprises and individuals when fulfilling their legal obligations in

. the property law has provided a legal basis for such business, and it is conductive to easing the financing difficulties of small - and medium - enterprises. account receivables, as a kind of unoccupied and invisible collateral, is prone to be repledged in practice, which might hurt the rights and interests of the creditor as well as other third parties. registration can effectively announce the existence of claims and record the time of pledge, enabling third parties to know all the claims on account receivables immediately, conveniently, and accurately, which is conductive to controlling the re - pledged risk in account receivables - pledged financing business. at the moment, the pbc is preparing to build a public announcement system for the account receivables pledge registration based on the internet and will launch it the day when the property law takes effect on october 1, 2007. all the related institutions should grasp the spirit of movables pledge provision of the property law, conduct study and develop account receivablespledged financing in an active manner. the evolution of china ’ s credit information collecting system has a long way to go. we need to rely on not only our own strength but also international exchanges and co - operation. with the support of the world bank group, two international seminars were jointly organized in beijing and shanghai in 2004, in addition to several other training and consulting programs. here i would like to express our sincere appreciation to the world bank and international financial corporation for the help during such a long time. finally, i wish the seminar a success and everybody a good time in tianjin.