The Financial Leasing Professional Committee, China Society of Finance (the “Committee”), approved by the Ministry of Civil Administration of the People’s Republic of China, is a non-profitable institution for the enterprises engaged in the business of financial leasing under the leadership of the People’s Bank of China and China Society of Finance. The official members of the Committee are the financial leasing companies established under the approval by the People’s Bank of China. The Committee warmly invites the institutions that are concerned about the development of financial leasing industry as supporting members and experts, scholars, celebrities of the financial leasing industry and the field of economics as individual members. The Committee is a nationwide academic and specialized self-regulatory organization that provides service to the member companies and undertakes research and development of financial leasing technology.

The Committee is a not-for-profit social organization that is formed under the principle of voluntary participation. The members of the Committee shall abide by the articles of association of the China Society of Finance and the Committee and be subject to the leadership of the China Society of Finance. The aim of the Committee is to implement laws and regulations as well as the state policy, serve as the bridge between governments and the member companies, conduct research on the development of the financial leasing industry, find the new problems arising from the management and operation of the financial leasing industry, protect the interest of the members, practice self regulation and risk control and hence facilitate the healthy development of the leasing industry.

The Committee is under the leadership of the People’s Bank of China and registers with the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China. The office of the Committee is at Room 213, CNFC Building of 31 Minfenghutong, xidan, Beijing, P. R. China.

The functions of the Committee cover: (i) formulating and supervising the enforcement of the self-regulatory protocols in accordance with the laws and regulations as well as state policies; (ii) propagandizing the laws and regulations as well as the state policies relating to financial leasing industry; (iii) drawing strategic plan of the development of the leasing industry and advising on the business of leasing; (iv) collecting information relating to leasing, conducting research of the industry and providing relevant information to the companies and departments concerned; (v) organizing and promoting the research of financial leasing theories and the use thereof in practice and strengthening the academic exchange and international relationship between different industries; (vi) unifying the financial leasing theory and outline of teaching to provide professional training; (vii) coordinating the relationship between the industry and the supervising authority, the internal relationship among members and the relationship between the industry and other industries; (viii) compiling and publishing the journal and publications of the Committee.

The Committee consists at present of twelve financial leasing companies approved by the People’s Bank of China as the official members and seven supporting members which provide financial assistance to the Committee. Mr. Zhu Jianxin serves as President of the Committee, Madam Tian Qing, Mr. Zheng Zhicheng, Mr. Dou Shuanwen, Mr. Wang Yuzhong and Mr. Zhao Gefei serve as Vice President and Madam Tian Qing serves concurrently as Secretary-general. Mr. Qiu Qiyang is retained as the senior counsel. The Secretariat is the standing office for daily affairs. The administrative office, the Department of Policy and Theory and the Department of Information are established Under the Committee.

The twelve official institutional members are as the following:

China Leasing Co., Ltd;
China Electronic Leasing Co., Ltd;
China Foreign Trade Financial Leasing Company;
New Century Financial Leasing Co., Ltd;
Shenzhen Financial Leasing Co., Ltd;
Jiangsu Leasing Co., Ltd;
Zhejiang Financial Leasing Co., Ltd;
Sichuan Financial Leasing Co., Ltd;
Hebei Financial Leasing Co., Ltd;
Shanxi Financial Leasing Co., Ltd;
Western Financial Leasing Co., Ltd;
Xinjiang Financial Leasing Co., Ltd.

The supporting members of the Committee include the following:

Chongqing Financial Leasing Co., Ltd (Pre-incorporated);
China Computer Leasing Co., Ltd;
Northwestern Leasing Co., Ltd;
Cangzhou Sino-Leasing Co., Ltd;
Yangzhou United Leasing Co., Ltd;
Tianjin Economic Construction Investment Group Corporation;
Xinjiang Commercial Leasing Co., Ltd.

The minimum registered capital for a financial leasing company shall be no less than five hundred million U.S dollars and a financial leasing company engaged in foreign exchange business shall have an extra registered foreign exchange capital of fifty million U.S dollars or equivalent amount in other negotiable currency.

A financial leasing may engage in the following Renminbi or foreign exchange business:

(i) Direct Lease, Leaseback, sublease, [entrusted lease] and other financial leasing;
(ii) Operating Leasing;
(iii) Leasing business by the use of the funds entrusted by corporates
(iv) Keeping deposit for leasing make by a party concerned in a financial leasing transaction;
(v) Extending liquid loans and advances to the lessee under a leasing transaction;
(vi) Portfolio investment in securities and equity investment in financial institutions;
(vii) Issuing financial bonds subject to the approval of the People’s Bank of China;
(viii) Borrowing from financial institutions;
(ix) Borrowing foreign exchange;
(x) Lending to banks and other financial institutions;
(xi) Selling the residue of leased goods;
(xii) Business consulting and security interest providing;
(xiii) Other business as approved by the People’s Bank of China.

The assets that may be leased in a financial leasing transaction shall be fixed assets.

The financial leasing industry of China has a history of over twenty years. Thanks to the reorganization and reconstruction, financial leasing companies are now playing an even more active role in the Chinese market of fixed assets investment. The assets that are involved in financial leasing transactions include traffic vehicles (airplanes, automobiles and railway locomotives), engineering machines, power plant equipment, medical equipment, all kinds of manufacturing equipment and urban public utility facilities and houses, etc. The twelve member financial leasing companies have total assets of more than twenty billion U.S dollars.

Chinese enterprises are interested in obtaining fixed assets for the reason that they may
(i) avoid using the credit line granted by a banking institution;
(ii) match the flexibility of the rental payment with the future cash flow;
(iii) make full use of the tax privilege for accelerated depreciation of the fixed assets involved in a financial leasing transaction;
(iv) raise fund for business operation by the use of leaseback financial leasing transaction in case of difficulty in obtaining loans from banking institutions by the charge of the fixed assets;
(v) get financed from the parent company or a related party company which has more than enough funds through the use of fund leasing entrusted through a leasing company when the enterprise is unable to obtain loans from baking institutions for the lack of satisfactory credibility;
(vi) go through more simple internal formalities if obtaining the fixed assets through the use of financial leasing compared with purchasing fixed assets by bank loans.

Chinese enterprises are interested in obtaining fixed assets through the use of operating leasing for the reason that they may
(i) avoid incurring the risk from the residue of the leased goods and return the leased goods to the lessor when they no longer need the leased goods or the leased goods is technologically outdated;
(ii) avoid the worsening of the financial ratio because operating leasing shall not be reflected in the balance sheet of the lessee.

In recent years, the legislation of China has witnessed a rapid development. The laws and regulations relating to leasing include the Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China in which there are chapters for operating leasing and financial leasing, Accounting Principles of Enterprises-Leasing, Administrative Measures on Financial Leasing Companies, Interim Administrative Measures on the Approval of Foreign Invested Leasing Companies and other rules for tax privilege that leasing companies may enjoy. Therefore there is a good legal environment of protecting and promoting leasing industry.

The Committee always attaches great importance to international exchange and cooperation. In October 2002, we held a senior conference on financial leasing in Lanzhou City of China. At the conference, the top management of the member companies produced articles and exchanged experiences. In addition, we also invited Mr. Sudhir. P. Amembal, the international famous leasing expert, to deliver lectures for three days on Learning from Matured Leasing Market and Making Profit from Leasing, which were warmly welcomed by the participants. We are now discussing with the representatives of international institutions the possibility of holding the annual world leasing conference in China in 2004. We believe, if the annual world leasing conference of 2004 is held in China, Chinese enterprises shall get deeper understanding of the leasing industry and therefore the global leasing industry may seek an even larger market. We sincerely wish that this dream would finally come true.