The Chinese central government Wednesday urged all banking, securities and insurance firms to comprehensively, correctly and actively understand and implement the current macro-economic control policy.

Financial companies should unite their minds with the central government's judgment on current economic situation and the central macro-economic control policy, according to a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao Wednesday.

In the last year, the financial sector made great efforts to curb over-heated fixed asset investment and guarantee the stability of economic development, proving that financial work played an important role in strengthening and improving the macro-economic control, according to the meeting.

Meeting participants vowed to take effective measures to strengthen and improve financial work, urging the financial sector to continue controlling overall loan amounts and optimizing loan structures. The meeting also stressed that different loan policies are appropriate for different situations.

Much attention should be paid to avoiding and solving financial risks. The financial sector should accelerate the process of handling problems left over by history to avoid new risks, and a risk management mechanism should be introduced to regulate loan policies, according to the meeting.

It called for taking the favorable opportunity to speed up financial reforms, especially the reform of state-owned commercial banks, and to enlarge the range of pilot reforms on the country's rural financial system.

China should sincerely implement its commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to open financial fields to overseas investment by stages, which will help to establish an open and fair market for both domestic and foreign companies, the meeting said.

The meeting decided to strengthen and improve financial supervision, especially the supervision on entrance to the financial markets, inner control of the financial sector, important financial operation and high-ranking financial managers.

As for how to avoid and punish financial crimes, the meeting said that comprehensive methods and cooperation should be adopted on the principle of combining punishment with prevention and laying more stress on the latter.

Meeting participants vowed to introduce more advanced equipment and strengthen mechanisms to fight financial crimes. More international cooperation should also be launched to crack down on international financial crimes.

The participants also discussed and approved the rule on the origin of import and export commodities and the management regulation on toll roads, which will be issued by the State Council after further amendments.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2004)