Li, a deputy to the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, said that the treasury bond market has a few varieties, with a huge market sold to banks, making it difficult for the general public to buy such bonds.

“This is a sign of the imperfect capital market,” he noted.

He called for vigorous efforts to expand the enterprises’ bond market because enterprises can raise funds not by issuing stocks only. “Efficient enterprises can also raise funds by issuing bonds, but a few enterprises do so now” he said.

In Li’s view, investors, especially individual ones, are greatly interested in enterprise bonds.

He called attention to the fact that China has too few investment funds and lacks institutional investors.

“From this we can see that a great deal can be done in expanding the capital market including the treasury bond market, the enterprise bond market and investments,”

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2002)