CHINA is urging more domestic companies to sell bonds, aiming to exceed a record 12.65 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) in sales the government has approved this year. There’s more room for companies to sell debt to domestic investors to tap the US$1 trillion in national savings, said the State Development and Planning Commission Saturday. The commission this year approved nine corporate bonds sales worth 12.65 billion yuan. “The Chinese corporate bond market is still small, and has the potential for more growth,’’ said Ma Jinghua, head of the commission’s securities division in Beijing. “We are optimistic we can expand the market further.’’ China is trying to wean State companies from relying on loans from the nation’s 101 banks, where an estimated US$500 billion, or about a quarter of credits, are non-performing. With a queue waiting to tap the nation’s US$550 billion equity market, it’s easier to sell bonds, companies said. Bonds “give us a new source of capital,’’ said Tony Zheng, an assistant corporate secretary at Zhejiang Expressway Co. Zhejiang Expressway said yesterday that it won government approval to sell 1 billion yuan in bonds in November to finance expansion of the busiest highway in eastern China. China’s US$475 billion equity market, Asia’s second-largest after Japan’s, has overshadowed the nation’s corporate bond market. Last year, 102 of China’s 1,300 listed companies raised 108 billion yuan (US$14 billion) by selling shares. Last year, by contrast, just five companies, two of which are listed, sold local-currency debt. Among other companies given approval to sell bonds were PetroChina Co. and China Mobile (Hong Kong) Ltd., all of which have shares traded in Hong Kong.PetroChina plans to sell 1.5 billion yuan in bonds, while China Mobile, the world’s biggest mobile phone company, plans to raise 8 billion yuan. (SD-Agencies)