communications and schroders group from the uk jointly established the bank of communications & schroders fund management co. ltd., deutsche bank ag bought equities of harvest fund management co. ltd. and belgian company invested in fushi fund management co. ltd in shanghai etc. second, china and europe have made a series of great progress in financial strategic cooperation. hsbc holding became the strategic investor of the bank of communications ; royal bank of scotland became the strategic investor of the bank of china ; bnp paribas invested in the nanjing commercial bank and became its strategic investor ; bausparkasse schwabisch hall ag and china construction bank together established the sino - german bausparkasse in tianjin. third, financial cooperation between china and europe via hong kong is in even greater scale. as the frontline of china to open up to the outside world, hong kong has 35 licensed banks from the european union, such as bnp paribas peregrine, deutsche bank, among the 167 licensed banks under the hkma regulation and 126 licensed securities future traders, consulting companies, asset management companies and other licensed financial intermediaries held by european shareholders among the total licensed financial intermediaries under the supervision of hong kong securities regulatory commission. furthermore, there are 1422 funds authorized by the hong kong securities regulatory commission to operate in hong kong are registered in europe. at end - 2004, net assets of those european funds reached over usd500 billion. financial development between china and europe will bring not only new challenges but also new opportunities for both sides to strengthen cooperation in financial services and regulation. china and europe have already set up bilateral financial services cooperation projects before, and the people ’ s bank of china as well as the china banking, securities and insurance regulatory authorities, have conducted and benefited from broad business exchange and collaboration with their european counterparts. in future, both sides will continue to strengthen exchange, understanding and cooperation to promote further development of their bilateral relations. ladies and gentlemen, china is making efforts to deepen financial reform and improve financial market openness. in particular, after the wto accession, china is conducting financial opening - up in line with the wto commitments. the third plenum of the 16th cpc central committee held in october 2003 pointed out that, china will boost opening - up in full scale, improve institutional protection of opening - up, advance the facilities of trade and investment, introduce more and more advanced technology, management experiences and qualified personnel,

strengthen the capability to participate in international collaboration and competition, develop service trade and continue to implement the “ going out ” strategy. the just concluded fifth plenum of the 16th cpc central committee in october further stressed that, china will promote globalization and facility of trade and investment, continue to open up services markets and accumulate the inward transfer of modern service industry from other countries in an orderly way and support qualified enterprises to invest in overseas market. in such an environment, we fully believe that the prospects of financial cooperation between china and europe will be much brighter in the days to come. finally, i wish the roundtable conference a complete success. thank you.