Chinese bank workers, ranging from tellers to top executives, will be trained at a new US program designed to bring China's financial services into step with global practices, university officials said on Monday.
The program at San Francisco State University is aimed at training a total of some 10,000 Chinese bank workers as the country works to modernize its economic infrastructure ahead of its anticipated entry into the World Trade Organization.
"The aim of the program is to reform and provide modern knowledge and technique in bank management in China," said Yea-mow Chen, chairman of the finance department at SFSU. "It is very much a backward, and they will be very much impacted by the accession to the WTO."
The program, slated to begin in several weeks, will train Chinese bank workers both in the United States and in China and will feature courses devoted to such topics as credit analysis, product development, and risk management, Chen said, adding that it would be the largest such training program arranged between the two countries.
China has pledged to open its financial industry wider to foreign firms after it joins the WTO, a move which could overwhelm Chinese financial institutions which have been hobbled by decades of state control.
The San Francisco State program is being developed in conjunction with Canadian-based China Ventures Inc. acting on behalf of a number of Chinese banks. The university held a preliminary training course for about 100 senior officers at one bank in May.
(Chinadaily.com.cn 08/14/2001)
