The Bank needs qualified employees in order to grow and develop its business. It recruits new graduates at home and those returning home from study abroad and through social recruitment. BOC has a strong track record of job creation, with 8,441 jobs created in 2005, 11,896 in 2006 and 10,847 in 2007. New employees' wages are higher than the average social wage level, and the Bank has been awarded the title of "Ideal Employer" at Sweden's Universum awards for two consecutive years. The Bank made no large-scale layoffs during the process of joint-stock reform.

BOC's overseas branches have long upheld the "localization" employment principle. Typically, more than 97% of overseas branch personnel are local employees.

Labor unions established in the Head Office and branches guarantee the lawful rights, interests and democratic rights of the employees,and represent them through participation in the democratic management of the Bank.

In its labor contracts, the Bank strictly complies with work schedules set out in state laws, i.e. not more than 8 hours daily and 40 hours weekly on average. Employees receive overtime compensation where necessary as per the relevant state standards, and enjoywelfare benefits such as regular physical examinations and all holidays determined by the government and the Bank.

The Bank has formulated the Interim Measures on the Women Employees' Labor Protection and acts in accordance with state provisions concerning the prohibition of child labor.

On-the-job training of employees is a priority for the Bank. It conducts targeted training sessions for senior management members,professional technicians and operators through the Beijing and Shanghai international finance training institutes and many other domestic training centers, as well as overseas training centers in New York, London, Singapore and Hong Kong. The annual training coverage rate is over 98%.

The Bank has also enhanced the leadership capability of its management staff by jointly running school programs with renowned universities such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Britain's London City University and the US University of Illinois. The Bank encourages and sponsors employees to attend various professional courses in their spare time. In recent years, the Bank has allocated an increasing amount of resources to employee training. In 2007, the training expense input of the whole Bank reached RMB284.448 million, and the number of on-the-job training employees was up to 6,232.

As an advocate of a healthy balance between work and leisure, the Bank takes a leading role in organizing a variety of stimulating cultural and sporting activities for its employees.

The Bank's labor loss rate (defined as the percentage of personnel leaving the Bank's employ per annum) held at a steady 1.22% in 2007. The stability of our workforce is a significant contributor to our success and continuing development.