East Meets West at Central Bank
From News, page 3, issue no. 248, Jan. 7 2008
Translated by Renjie
Original article: [Chinese]

After two months of deliberation, Yi Gang and Ma Delun have both been promoted to vice-governors of the People's Bank of China, the state central bank. Together they will contribute a combination of Eastern experience and Western education. Both were previosly assistants to the Bank's governor.

Ma Delun the Banker
According to information from the Bank, Ma Delun was born in November of 1949. He has been with the People's Bank of China for most of his career, starting in the Regulations and Laws Department, where he eventually was promoted to director of policy research. In the early 1990's he served as director and spokesman of the Bank's general office. In 2001, he became the deputy director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and held a concurrent post as the deputy chief of the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank in 2005.

Industry insiders say Ma has abundant grassroots working experience and is familiar with the country's basic conditions, which they say is the foundation for his pragmatism. They add that as Ma's work focus has shifted from direct financing to the development of financial markets to, most recently, monetary policy, his ability to rapidly grasp key issues in new work environments is notable.

Yi Gang the Scholar
Different from Ma’s pragmatic style, Yi Gang is more like a scholar than a governor.

Born in 1958, Yi was an assistant professor of economics at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, where he obtained his Ph.D. He went on to become a professor of economics at Peking University-- a background which has earned him the reputation of having a "typical overseas educated" mindset, and of being a proponent of market liberalization.

Yi joined the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee in 1997, and became its deputy-general in 2002. He was promoted to general in 2003.

Current Challenges
The Bank emphasized at a recent 2008 policy conference that it will tighten monetary policy, work to control credit growth, and increase the flexibility of the exchange rate through use of interest rate adjustments. It also stressed that it will use financial and monetary tools to strengthen the social security system and to balance the trade surplus.

Says one industry insider, "It was noticeable at the conference that the central bank will attempt to deal with the trade surplus by taking a hard look at its root causes."

The central bank currently faces the unenviable position of maintaining stability in the yuan's exchange rate while simultaneously controlling inflation.