China Press Digest: Monday, November 6

     BEIJING (MNI) - The following are highlights from the China press for

Monday, November 6:

     The head of the financial research institute at the People's Bank of China

has said that all businesses involved in financial technology need to have a

license, the Financial News, a journal published by the PBOC, reported Monday.

Sun Guo Feng, speaking Saturday, said that licensing would play a very important

part in supervision of financial technology. (Financial News)

     China will create a legal digital currency to improve its "digital

economy," a People's Bank of China official said Saturday, the Financial News,

in journal published by the PBOC, reported Monday. Yao Qian, head of the central

bank's digital currency research center, cited President Xi Jinping's 19th

Communist Party Congress report, which emphasized deeper integration of the real

economy with the internet, big data and artificial intelligence, arguing that

the development of a digital currency is part of that. China will create an

implementation plan that is forward-looking but flexible to strengthen the

integration of the digital currency, while minimizing risks, Yao said.

(Financial News)

     Allowing the market to perform its fundamental function, defining the

boundary between the roles of market forces and the government, and energizing

micro-level businesses and entities will be crucial to China's economic reform,

the Economic Information Daily said in a front-page commentary Monday. The

newspaper stressed the importance of coordination of these three aspects,

mentioned by President Xi Jinping in his keynote speech at the 19th Communist

Party Congress. A key question for China's economic development is how to

scientifically specify the boundary between allowing market forces to operate

and the need for government intervention, because at times the government has

gone too far and restricted the development of businesses, the newspaper argued.

The government needs to moderate its control over the economy, using a light

touch at the micro-economic level and instead focusing on supervising overall

market order. (Economic Information Daily)

     Although risks in the banking system have been reduced due to a drop in the

bad loan ratio in the first three quarters of this year, risks to the sector's

liquidity conditions remain a danger, the official People's Daily reported

Monday. The newspaper cited Dong Ximiao, researcher at the Chongyang Institute

for Financial Studies at Renmin University, who added that banks' liabilities

mainly derive from short-term debt, such as deposits and bills with maturities

of less than a year. That makes it hard for banks to support their longer-term

assets, like their loans, Dong said. The next step for banks is to optimize

assets and liabilities. Banks also need to be cautious about credit risks, Dong

argued, strengthening controls to keep profits from eroding. (People's Daily) 

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: iris.ouyang@marketnews.com

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: rich.dirks@marketnews.com

--MNI BEIJING Bureau; +1 202-371-2121; email: john.carter@mni-news.com

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