full article http://www.iht.com/IHT/TODAY/FRI/FIN/chifund.2.html Paris, Friday, September 1, 2000 China Plans to Introduce Western-Style Mutual Funds Bloomberg News HONG KONG - China will try to spur its mutual-fund industry as early as next year by introducing pilot open-end funds, according to government officials and advisers. China is tapping foreign companies for advice on the Western-style open-end mutual funds because its closed-end funds, which trade like stocks, are proving too volatile. ''The government is looking for aggressive financial reform,'' said Tina So, a director at Schroder in Hong Kong, which is advising Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the nation's biggest bank, about opening an open-ended fund. Ms. So said it was not yet clear whether foreign investors would be allowed to enter the market, which had 29 closed-end funds with about 80 billion yuan ($9.5 billion) invested at the end of June. She said a lack of clear investment fund laws would slow the opening of the market. China will also impose tough new regulations on its domestic financial industry, which is riddled with corruption, according to Shi Ming Cai, director-general of the social insurance fund supervision department at China's Ministry of Labor and Social Security. Chinese citizens deposited more than 6.3 trillion yuan in savings this year through the end of July, up 6.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the People's Bank of China. With a population of about 1.3 billion, that puts the per-capita deposit rate at 4,846 yuan.
