The Shanghai municipal government Wednesday made public its action agenda for building an individual and corporate credit rating service system during the period 2003-2005.

According to the agenda, Shanghai will establish, by 2005, a joint individual and corporate credit rating system as part of its bid to build the city into a "metropolis of credit."

Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng said the move was designed to regulate the economic order, prevent financial risks, expand credit loans and domestic demand, and improve the environment for investors.

The planned system will cover every aspect of social and economic life in the city, backed by a database of credit files on about six million to seven million local residents, at least 80 percent of large enterprises and 50 percent of medium-sized and small firms, and half of various institutions and non-governmental organizations, said the mayor.

Shanghai, which is striving to become an international economic, financial, trade and shipping center, began to collect and offer credit information on individuals in July 2000.

A spokesperson for the Shanghai Credit Information Service Co., an authorized credit information firm, said the city's credit rating system is beginning to take shape, as one in four residents has his or her personal credit file recorded by the firm.

The spokesperson said the company had collected credit records on 3.25 million residents in Shanghai, and produced 840,000 credit files over the past three years.

Jiang Lan, spokesperson for the Shanghai municipal government, said the personal credit information system was having a positive impact on boosting credit consumption.

Jiang said outstanding personal credit loans accounted for 12 percent of the total in the metropolis, compared with the national average of two to three percent.

(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2003)