Mizuho Corporate Bank President Hiroshi Saito said Tuesday the company will greatly expand operations to take advantage of the rapid growth of the Chinese economy.

"We will concentrate about half of our energy for international operations on China as we want to double the number of branches there at an early date," Saito told Kyodo News.

"Loans in China are getting bigger due to the rapid growth of its industry, especially the automobile sector," he said, indicating the bank's readiness to offer services such as financial support for Japanese companies wanting to do business there.

Mizuho Corporate Bank, a member of Mizuho Financial Group Inc. that provides banking services to major companies, currently has four branches in mainland China. They are in Shanghai, Dalian, Beijing and Shenzhen. It also has one branch in Hong Kong and two in Taiwan.

To expand its branch network in China, Mizuho Corporate Bank has already filed for approval to open a branch in Wuxi and plans to upgrade its representative offices in Tianjin and Guangzhou to branches, Saito said. The bank also intends to open branches in Qingdao and Chongqing.

Mizuho Corporate Bank is able to expand China-related operations as its participation in a bailout program for Nissan Diesel Motor Co. has put an end to its financial support for major troubled debtors, he said.

The bank can afford to take aggressive strategies, including helping to revive ailing corporate clients and securitization of claims on loans, due to its improving earnings. In the fiscal first half of 2003, for example, it posted an unconsolidated pretax profit of 359 billion yen, the largest among major commercial banks in Japan.