reporting market. in 2003, with the approval of the state council the pbc established the credit reporting bureau, responsible for planning, management and publicity of the national credit reporting industry for loans. the pbc is now making great efforts in upgrading and standardizing china ’ s credit reporting industry. the pbc has been well aware of the importance of construction of modern credit culture. in 1997, the pbc began preparation for setting up the credit registration and consulting system and formed the unified national credit registration and consulting system at end - 2002. by end - june 2004, the system has had entries of 4. 2 million borrowing entities with rmb loans close to rmb14 trillion and accounting for 82. 3 percent of total rmb loans by financial institutions in the same period. the system covers all existing lending institutions in china. in recent years, this system has become an instrumental tool for lending institutions in preventing financial risks, lowering credit costs and enhancing loan efficiency. on july 1, 2000, under the active involvement and support of the pbc, shanghai municipality took the lead in the pilot implementation of united personal credit reporting system. more than one million residents in shanghai had their personal credit reporting recorded in the system, the first of similar events in china. recently, the pbc has sped up construction of the central basic credit reporting system. the system will form a national enquiry network of basic credit reporting based on the experience of the pilot implementation in shanghai and “ the credit registration and consulting system by banks ” that has been put into operation. the system will first and foremost provide service for banks in enquiry of credit reporting, and will gradually open according to laws to other qualified credit reporting agencies and other institutions with legal purpose of access. to meet the requirements of development of china ’ s market economy, china ’ s system of credit reporting agencies shall, in general, be composed of a small number of big and basic credit reporting agencies possessing national basic credit reporting and a number of regional and specialized credit reporting agencies providing value - added services and with distinct features. the system will integrate resources, share information and arouse proper competition in the link of credit data gathering. it will also turn on distinct characteristics and bring about equitable competition in terms of credit rating and survey and consultancy etc. there will thus form a multi - level and multi - directional system of credit reporting agencies that not only makes full use of various resources and brings into play the economy of scale but also satisfies different needs for

credit reporting. the healthy development of credit reporting market is impossible without effective supervision by the government. supervision by the government is the important guarantee for enforcement of credit reporting laws and rules, for protecting personal benefits of consumers, for promoting healthy development of credit reporting industry and for safeguarding national economic information security and social stability. in the preliminary stage of the credit reporting industry, supervision by the government might be quite strong. with improvement of credit reporting laws and rules and the credit reporting market, the industry will be oriented toward combining supervision by the government with self - discipline of the industry itself. the publicity and education of credit culture is also important means of cultivating credit reporting market. the extensive publicity of modern credit culture calls for the concerted efforts of the government, units and individuals. the purpose of publicity and education is that enterprises and individuals will understand the importance of credit reporting, use credit reporting in a correct manner and participate actively in credit culture. in the course of cultivating china ’ s modern credit culture, the pbc has been fully aware of the import of strengthening publicity and education among the public including lending institutions and is now strengthening its works on this aspect. finally, i ’ d like to emphasize the importance of legislation for the credit reporting industry. the modern credit culture should be based on the legal safeguard. legislation of the credit reporting industry lays the foundation for construction of the social credit system as well as the modern credit culture. only through legal rules will it be possible to ensure healthy and sustained development of the credit reporting industry, and will china ’ s long - lived traditional credit culture develop and evolve into modern credit culture. while we are speeding up construction of the social credit system, china has the honor to be the host country for “ the fourth global conference of personal credit reporting ” and the international conference of “ public policy for the credit reporting system : strengthening public - private dialogue and partnership ”. we believe that the convening of the two meetings will sure promote construction of china ’ s credit system, and also contribute to the development of credit reporting industry in the world. wish a complete success of this conference! wish all participants a pleasant stay in beijing! thank you!