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Carrie Lee

THE Guangxi province port city of Beihai aims to lure two or three foreign banks this year, according to a senior official.

  Vice-mayor Jiang Tianchen said city officials had held talks with Dao Heng Bank, Bank of China and Nanyang Commercial Bank about setting up presence in the city.

   ''They were very interested,'' said Mr Jiang, adding Beihai had submitted an application to the central Government for approval.

   ''Our financial reform calls for the presence of foreign banks,'' he said, adding that they had a key role to play in future plans.

  The central Government has approved the Bank of Communications to establish a branch in Beihai. It will open this month.

  The city's financial structure is headed by the People's Bank, with support from the Bank of Industry and Commerce, the Bank of Agriculture, the Bank of Construction, the Bank of Communications and insurance companies.

  There are also other financial institutions - the China International Trust and Investment Co, Beihai Trust and Investment Co, city credit companies and rural credit companies.

   The city plans this year to organise a bank to centralise all 12 city credit companies, and another to centralise the about 20 rural credit companies. It has yet to seek central Government approval for the moves.

   Beihai is one of the three financial reform piloting centres for Guangxi, the others being Nanning and Liuzhou, whose financial systems developed earlier than Beihai's.

   People's Bank of China Beihai branch deputy director Rong Minggao said the city's financial sector had grown rapidly in recent years.

   At the end of 1982, Beihai had only 115 financial institutions, including one offering forex service. They had total deposits of 120 million yuan (about HK$106 million) and loans totalling 32 million yuan. They employed 650 people.

   At the end of last year, the city had 326 financial institutes, including 34 with forex operations. Total deposits amounted to 7.59 billion yuan, and loans 4.32 billion yuan. They employed a total of 4,326 staff.

  In January, a capital clearing centre was established to enhance the speed of clearance between banks, accelerating capital flow in the city.

  Before the austerity plan, some non-banks in the city raised interest rates to two to three times that of banks to lure more deposits.

  However, Mr Rong said that practice had been stopped with the imposition of Beijing's austerity plan.

  The city has two automatic teller machines - one belonging to the Bank of China and the other to the Bank of Industry and Commerce.



Beihai set to lure foreign banks to city