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Mr. Zhang Jianguo, President of China Construction Bank delivered a talk today at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The title is “Future of Banking Industry in China — Challenges & Opportunities”. Over 150 students, professors and alumni attended.

Mr. Zhang Jianguo has been the President of China Construction Bank since July 2006. He was Vice Chairman of the board of directors and President of Bank of Communications Co., Ltd. from June 2004 to July 2006. He had also held senior positions in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Mr. Zhang received a master’s degree in Economics from Tianjin College of Finance and Economics in 1995.

Prof. Lee Tien-sheng, Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration said, “The CUHK Faculty of Business Administration is honoured to have invited President Zhang to visit CUHK and share his expertise and insights with our students, professors and alumni. We always strive to strengthen our connection and exchanges with the business sector, such as inviting prominent business leaders to be Adjunct Professors or guest speakers in our forums. President Zhang’s inspiring speech has enlightened us and allowed us to have more understanding and insights of the banking industry in China, a topic which is of great interest and relevancy to us. The success of China Construction Bank could be a very good case study for the learning of our students. We sincerely hope that there will be more exchange and cooperation between the China Construction Bank and our Faculty in the near future.”

President Zhang said industry players in China’s banking industry must grasp the golden opportunity under the new market environment, “First of all, we have to work out how to meet customers’ needs in the context of local market situation. Equally important is to be open-minded to learn from foreign banks on the advanced management philosophy and corporate governance mechanism. In addition, we should further strengthen and push forward the reformation of internal operations and management structure. In facing the wider world, we have to strengthen the joint efforts with foreign banks and maintain fair competition. The fact is that banking industry in China is gradually going into the world market. A healthy competitive environment building on a cooperative ground in the international arena will definitely help boost the development of China’s banking industry while benefit the global financial market as a whole.”

China Construction Bank (CCB) is the first among the four largest state-owned commercial banks in China to complete listing. As the leading commercial bank in China, CCB provides a comprehensive range of commercial banking products and services including corporate banking, personal banking, treasury operation, as well as a wide range of products and services, such as infrastructure loans, residential mortgage loans and bank cards. In July 2005, CCB was ranked the first place and the 11th place respectively on the “Top 100 Banks in China” and “Top 1000 World Banks” listings complied by The Banker magazine based on the tier-one capital of the banks worldwide. In addition, CCB was rated as the "most profitable bank in Asia" on the list of "Top 300 Asian Banks" released by Asiaweek in July 2006. In November 2006, CCB secured the fourth position in the “2006 Asian Banks Competitiveness Ranking” initiated by the 21st Century Business Herald, who invited the Faculty of Business Administration of the CUHK and Guanghua School of Management of Peking University to carry out the exercise. As the position was the highest among all mainland Chinese commercial banks, CCB was named the most competitive commercial bank in mainland China.