No timetable for energy ministry

CHINA has no timetable so far for setting up an energy ministry, National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Ma Kai said Wednesday.

“It’s too early to give a timetable on setting up the energy ministry,” he said at a press conference. A Chinese lawmaker last week urged the government to re-establish an energy ministry to better control the use of resources as China’s energy needs continue to grow rapidly.

Investment supervision system mulled

THE government is considering setting up a supervision system for overseas investments by central State-owned enterprises (SOEs), sources with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission revealed Thursday.

The aim is to regulate central SOEs’ offshore investment activities and reduce their exposure to risk, the sources said, but did not provide details of the possible supervision system. Last year, Chinese enterprises made direct offshore investments of more than US$16 billion, up 32 percent on the previous year. By the end of 2006, Chinese enterprises had launched more than 10,000 offshore operations, involving a total investment of US$73 billion.

CDB reports 23% increase in net profits

CHINA Development Bank (CDB), one of China’s three policy banks, said its net profits rose 22.8 percent to 28 billion yuan (US$3.59 billion) by the end of 2006.

Total assets of the bank grew 21.9 percent to 2,314.3 billion yuan, but the capital adequacy ratio dropped 1.1 percentage points to 8.05 percent, according to the bank’s annual report for 2006.

The bank’s loan balance rose 16.5 percent to 2.02 trillion yuan, while its non-performing loan (NPL) ratio dropped to 0.72 percent from 0.96 percent in 2005 and 1.31 percent in 2004.