China's financial supervisory departments should strengthen their supervision and even consider inviting foreign professionals to work as consultants, Han Fangming, chairman of the Chahar Society, a Beijing-based think tank, has suggested.

In an interview with China.org on Saturday, Han said: "Supervisory ability, fundamentally, is an issue of the available talents. It is difficult for the government to attract professional talents with its current civil servant system and its salary level.

"In other words, the watchdogs' ability is much weaker than their opponents seeking to disturb or break the market order," said Han. "To solve the issue, the government at least needs to get the proper people working for it."

The government should look for first-class talents from home and abroad to maintain financial market order. "But the best talents are not on the supervisory side, but opposite. The imbalance of talent directly influences the supervision results," said Han.

"The situation in the market is too complicated for the current civil servants in the supervisory departments to handle. In this sense, why not invite people like George Soros to act as consultants?"

Last November, some media outlets reported that Ba Shusong, chief economist of the China Banking Association, said the central government was considering the feasibility of integrating the China Security Regulatory Commission, China Insurance Regulatory Commission and China Banking Regulatory Commission into a unified financial supervisory commission.

Yin Zhongqing, vice director of financial and economic committee of the National People's Congress expressed similar thoughts on Friday during the annual meeting of the nation's top legislature in Beijing. He said the central government can combine the responsibilities of protecting investors and consumers now spread across the central bank and the three commissions into a single entity called the financial behavior supervision bureau.

This plan was practical and workable, Han said. "Most important is to find top talents to lead the unification of the three commissions and the operation of this combination."

"The recruited talents should have a global view, international experience, professional knowledge, rather than just being government or Party officials, because financial supervision is a very professional thing," he added.

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