The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country's largest commercial bank, will make room in its plans for private and foreign clients this year, said Liu Tinghua, the bank President on January 30.

And the bank, a traditional money supplier to large-scale State-owned businesses, will continue its support to critical industriesand large-scale State-owned enterprises, reported today's China Daily Business Weekly.

The bank will gradually increase credit to foreign-invested andprivate enterprises this year in accordance with China's opening process and the growth of private businesses, Liu said at a recentICBC National Conference.

This is a part of ICBC's ongoing credit structure reform, whichgives priority to profitability and market demand.

"We should increase the proportion of loans to foreign-investedand private enterprises in areas where these enterprises are developing soundly," said Liu.

ICBC will offer Renminbi loans to foreign-invested companies with foreign exchange savings as collateral.

However, in the overall credit structure, foreign and private businesses still cannot compete with clients in the State-level infrastructure pillar, high-technology and State-monopolized industries, whose development are critical to the national economy.

Therefore, new loans this year will mostly go to these important industries and projects, said Liu. And to avoid unnecessary financial risks, the bank will gradually reduce loans to some traditional industries which record low profitability and are not competitive on the global market.

Moreover, the bank will extend coverage of credit line servicesthis year to win more high quality clients. It will also improve credit approval procedures to better serve the 11,200 important enterprises which have ICBC credit lines.

For low quality clients, the bank will develop an investment banking business or co-operate with its non-performing assets operator, Huarong, to retrieve credit through debt restructuring, capital security, auctions and listings. (Xinhua)