are more than 3, 000 private - controlled institutions out of 4, 588 banking institutions in china, and most of the 170 chinese insurance companies are private - controlled. most of the securities companies and fund companies are private - owned as well. even for the top five commercial banks, foreign ownership accounted for as high as 25 percent a decade ago, while at that time it was very difficult for them to even apply for a branch in the us. currently, the big banks ’ ownership shares from private sector, domestic or foreign, account for an average of 30 percent, with some even exceeding 40 percent. it shall also be 5 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches pointed out that although the kpis of the top five banks are improving, their market share continue to decline, now only 37 percent. so in terms of market concentration, china is notably lower than some major economies, like the us and the european countries. another typical example is china ’ s fintech, which takes the lead in the world. the most important underlying reason is that the government adopted a prudent yet inclusive attitude towards private internet companies, thus creating a fair competition environment. large stateowned banks adopted the attitude of both competition and cooperation from the very beginning toward fintech companies. for example, more than a decade ago, ali - pay was born and swiftly grew through cooperation with the large and medium - sized banks, including china construction bank. now, all fintech companies have established strategic cooperative partnerships with the large and medium - sized banks. other banks themselves have also made great efforts to develop fintech business. they carried out all - round cooperation with it companies in fund raising, account opening, payment and settlement, inclusive finance etc. they draw on each other ’ s strengths to make up for each other ’ s shortcomings, and have achieved remarkable results. thus, it demonstrates that even in such most significant and essential field, the chinese government didn ’ t simply exercise state monopoly. vi. the goal to improve corporate governance structure will remain unchanged. in recent years, some foreign institutions and organizations have been skeptical about china ’ s corporate governance, especially about the cpc ’ s role in it. private enterprises in china have always been operating independently and effectively based on their articles of association and governance structures. they are independent entities operating in the market and abide by the rules of the market. the cpc has not interfered in their operation. in the state - owned enterprises, the leadership of the cpc has always

flowing to low - level duplicated constructions and over - investment sectors, the people ’ s bank of china has encouraged and guided the commercial banks to increase credit support to the agriculture sector, small and medium - sized enterprises, consumer demand and job creation. in the meantime, constructions of corporate and individual credit information registration systems were strengthened and legislation related to promoting consumer credit was further improved. moreover, administrative rules on small - amount guarantee loans for unemployed workers was enhanced and loan approval procedures were simplified to encourage banks to increase loan support to those qualified labor - intensive small businesses in which certain proportion of job vacancies are filled by laid - off workers. rapid growth of the chinese economy and the following austerity measures taken by the government recently has aroused wide concerns of the international community. some people are worried the chinese economy may lose control and head for persistent overheating while others are concerned about the destabilizing effects a hard brake on the chinese economy may bring to the world economy still on the course of recovery. here, i would like to assure our friends that the chinese government remains crystal - clear about the current economic situation and is taking timely, prudent and appropriate measures to address the problems. some measures have already started to take effects, and we are fully confident that existing problems in the current process of economic development will be resolved and the good growth momentum will be maintained without ups and downs. iii. sequenced gradual reform of the rmb exchange rate regime like the overall economic reform, china ’ s foreign exchange rate system reform is also a gradual and sequenced process. before economic opening up, management of foreign exchange earnings and expenses was centralized and rmb exchange rate was decided and adjusted solely by the government. after 1979, enterprises were allowed to retain foreign exchange earnings and a foreign exchange swap market was established to form dual exchange rates in china, namely the official exchange rate and the swap market exchange rate. with foreign exchange system reform introduced in 1994, foreign exchange purchase and sale was required to be effected through the banking system and a nation - wide inter - bank foreign exchange market was thus put into place, leading to the formation of the so - called managed floating foreign exchange rate system based on market supply and demand of foreign exchange. such a system has since remained unchanged. the rmb exchange rate has been allowed to fluctuate since 1994. during 1994 - 1997, the rmb appreciated from 8. 7 yuan per us dollar to 8. 3 yuan per us dollar.