China plans to delegate the administrative power of state-owned rural credit cooperatives in eight provinces and municipalities to provincial and municipal governments from the central bank, banking regulators said Tuesday.

The move is an effort by the central government to provide better services for the country's farmers and rural firms.

Sources at the China Banking Regulatory Commission said the provincial and municipal governments involved will not interfere in the business operation of those financial institutions, but will exercise macro-administration according the principle of separating state enterprises from government departments.

However, the provincial and municipal governments will not be allowed to delegate their macro-administrative power to county or township governments, the regulators said.

There are 34,909 rural credit cooperatives across China, with 2.23 trillion yuan (about US$272 billion) in outstanding deposits and 1.61 trillion yuan (about US$197 billion) in outstanding loans, equal to some 11.5 percent and 10.8 percent of the total deposits and loans in the country's banking sector.

(People’s Daily August 20, 2003)