When lecturing in China's leading Tsinghua University, China Construction Bank (CCB) chairman Guo Shuqing testified that the most troubling problem facing his bank in its "go overseas" strategy is a shortage of talented professionals.

CCB, one of China's four biggest commercial banks, wants to set up branches in New York and London, Guo told the students, adding that the bank is "hungry for people specialized in financial accounting, securities analysis, portfolio management, interest rate pricing and foreign exchange pricing".

China, the world's fastest-growing economy with an annual GDP growth of almost 10 percent for the last 10 years, has long been considered the world's factory, producing about 75 percent of the world's home appliances for example.

But as the country moves to a more market-oriented financial system, financial talents are at a premium because there are so many issues to deal with.

As a major reform in the financial sector, China dropped its currency peg to the US dollar in July 2005 and linked the yuan to a basket of foreign currencies, allowing it to float in a 0.3 percent band around the official central parity.

"Everything changed when they expanded the fluctuation range to 0.5 percent," says textile trader Wei Changshan from Beijing-based Dongxing Textile Co. "I'd really like to hire someone to tell me about how to manage it."

In July 2005, 8.28 yuan could be exchanged for one US dollar. On July 10, 2007, the same dollar could be bought for just 7.58 yuan.

Hearkening to overseas comments, Yi Gang, assistant governor of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said that the exchange rate of the Chinese currency would gradually become more flexible.