MNI China Press Digest, Sept 21: Xi, Yuan, Infra Investment

     BEIJING (MNI) - The following lists highlights from the Chinese press for

Friday:

     Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the country needs to make more

efforts to ensure that reforms tackle practical problems, Xinhua News Agency

reported. At the meeting held by Xi to discuss deepening reforms, officials

noted that high-quality growth will continue to be fundamental to China's

development, Xinhua said. China should establish systems of indexes, policies,

standards, statistic records and officials' performance evaluations to support

high-quality growth, the report said. Financial regulators need to improve their

supervision and regulation, ensuring that their regulation falls in line with

each other's, officials stressed. China needs to better coordinate its regional

development, and to deepen reforms and innovation in its free-trade pilot zones,

officials at the meeting concluded.

     China should focus on four main factors to ensure that the yuan exchange

rate remains reasonably stable, Securities Daily reported. Strong economic

fundamentals, the emergence of new growth engines and industrial structural

upgrades should support the yuan, the newspaper said. China's international

balance of payments is reasonably balanced, the commentary said, while foreign

reserves are abundant and basically stable despite fluctuations. The PBOC will

continue to perform an important role in pulling the yuan exchange rate to a

"normal functioning track," the newspaper said, adding that the central bank

will take measures to stabilise the yuan.

     Various financing channels are increasing funds for infrastructure

investment, Economic Information Daily reported. From August to mid-September,

more than CNY600 billion in special bonds were issued, with more than CNY200

billion issued in September, the newspaper said. Such a large special bond

issuance should support infrastructure investment worth more than a trillion

yuan when using leverage, the newspaper said. Banks such as Bank of China and

China Construction Bank stressed they will support investment, the newspaper

said, adding that according to unidentified industry insiders, banks will

provide the funds on budget.

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

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86-10-8532-5998; email: beijing@marketnews.com

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