On June 28th, a grand ceremony was held in Beijing for the signing of a Strategic Partnership Agreement between China Construction Bank Corporation and the CITIC Group.  The signing of this agreement indicated that, in their process of forging up a comprehensive strategic partnership relationship, the two parties had entered an entirely new stage of business development and there would be further cooperation between them in different areas.  The ceremony was attended by Vice Chairman and General Manager of the CITIC Group Mr. Chang Zhenmin and CCB President Mr. Zhang Jianguo, while the agreement was signed between Mr. Ju Weimin, Chief Financial Officer of CITIC and Mr. Zhao Lin, Vice President of CCB.  Also participating in the ceremony was Mr. Zhu Xiaohuang, CCB Chief Risk Officer.

The CITIC Group is a product of China’s reform and opening-up policy and, after more than 20 years of development, it has become a major holding conglomerate of good repute both domestically and overseas.  While finance is its main business, its non-financial businesses are playing significant roles as well.

CCB is one of China’s major state-owned holding commercial banks.  As the first state-owned commercial bank to be listed overseas, CCB has a retail network covering cities and rural areas over the whole country, offers a comprehensive range of services, owns a tremendous amount of funds and possesses strong brand appeals.  It ranks third in the “Top 100 Chinese Banks” by The Banker magazine of UK in 2007, ranks 69th in Forbes’ “World’s 2,000 Largest Public Companies 2007” list and is acclaimed as “The Best Corporate Governance Enterprise 2007” by Asset magazine.

According to the terms of this agreement, CCB will provide such financial services as financing, centralised fund management, intermediary business to the CITIC Group in accordance with relevant state policies and regulations.  In addition, to ensure that the agreement can be smoothly implemented, both parties agree to establish information exchange mechanisms at multiple levels.

Entering into this agreement will propel both parties to a new level of business cooperation.  Both parties firmly believe that the establishment of such a comprehensive strategic cooperative relationship will further enhance the competitive advantages of both parties in their respective business areas and will help better and quicker development of each other’s business on a mutually beneficial basis.