Ｖｉｃｅ Ｐｒｅｍｉｅｒ Ｈｕａｎｇ Ｊｕ Ｍｅｅｔｓ ｗｉｔｈ Ｍｒ． Ｗｉｌｌｉａｍ Ｒｈｏｄｅｓ， Ｖｉｃｅ Ｃｈａｉｒｍａｎ ｏｆ Ｃｉｔｉｇｒｏｕｐ Ｕ．Ｓ．

Vice Premier Huang Ju met with Mr. William Rhodes， vice chairman of Citigroup and chairman of Citibank U.S. and his party on March 4 at the Hall of Purple Light in Zhongnanhai， Beijing. Qiao Zonghuai， leading official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs， and Li Xiaolin， vice president of the CPAFFC also attended the meeting. Huang Ju extended warm welcome to Mr. Rhodes and appreciated Citigroup’s efforts to promote cooperation between China and the U.S. in the fields of capital market and financial institutions as well as its encouragement of China to take part in international financial market. He hoped that Citigroup would continue to give valuable suggestions on China’s economic reform， in particular， financial reform and play a more important role in this respect.

Mr. Rhodes appraised highly China’s rapid economic development， saying that China has become a focus of interest for countries all over the world. When people talk about the world economy， what concerns them most is America’s economic growth and interest rate and their impact on the world， next is the prices of oil and gas and thirdly is China’s economic development. China’s economy is vitally important to the economic development of Asia and the world as a whole.

Vice Premier Huang Ju spoke highly of the work Citigroup had done to promote cooperation in capital market and financial institutions between the two countries， saying that as a friend of China， Mr. Rhodes has put forward many valuable suggestions on China’s economic development and financial reform. He hoped that this friendly relationship could be kept in the future. He also advised Mr. Rhodes to get more information from and exchange views with the People’s Bank of China， the Banking Regulatory Committee， the Ministry of Finance and other economic and financial institutions in China.