The People's Bank of China, China's central bank, will launch a technical cooperation program with the United States Department of the Treasury, according to a bank spokesperson.

The cooperation was proposed in September when visiting US treasury secretary John Snow met with his Chinese counterpart Jin Renqing and central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan in Beijing. The two sides expressed their willingness to cooperate and agreed that international experience would benefit China's financial reform and opening up to the outside world, said the spokesperson.

They decided to set up a technical cooperation program, which would facilitate communication and cooperation between financial experts of the two countries and promote the development of the financial market in China.

This program would bring better understanding and cooperation between China and the US in the finance arena, which would contribute to the stable development of the world economy, said the spokesperson.

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2003)