The People's Bank of China, the central bank, said it would speed up financial innovations, according to its China Financial Markets Development Report 2006 released yesterday.

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The central bank will expand by creating new products in inter-bank markets and steadily develop the short-term financing bonds market.

China will also speed up reforms in the gold market, launch more gold-related products, and explore ways to transfer the gold market from the current spot market to financial derivatives market.

The central bank will make changes to the foreign exchange market and research the possibilities of launching renminbi-derivative products.

The country will back up securities companies to innovate their products, services and organizations, develop more funds, and promote the reform of close-end funds.

The central bank will also allow the futures market to fully develop and launch more new commodity futures and focus on financial futures.

China will also strengthen the research and development of financial derivatives, establish a plan for the development of products, and urge relevant government departments and research institutions to prepare for financial derivatives.

China's financial market structure continued to improve last year. Companies raised a total of 246.37 billion yuan (US$32.21) in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets, 628.6 percent higher than the previous year, says the report.

According to the report, with the launch of more innovative products, bond issues climbed to 2.02 trillion yuan last year, from 1.35 trillion yuan in 2005. The composition of investors kept improving, with a growing number of institutional investors, which have become a major player in the financial market.

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