Chinese companies have for the first time issued more corporate bonds than their Japanese counterparts over the past year, marking another milestone in the development of China's capital markets.

过去一年中国公司发行的公司债券量首次超过日本公司，标志着中国资本市场的发展达到又一个里程碑。

Record Chinese issuance in the first half also surpassed Japanese companies' own record sales during this period.

今年上半年，中国创纪录的债券发行量也超过了日本企业同期的创纪录销售。

The increase in Chinese debt sales, which has been a feature of the market for the past few years, partly reflects the incremental steps the government is making to expand the market. This was highlighted by the Agricultural Bank of China's massive $7.33bn sale in May.

中国债券销售的增长，是过去几年中国市场的一大特征，部分反映出中国政府正在采取的扩大市场规模的渐进措施。中国农业银行5月份 73.3亿美元的巨额债券销售，就突显了这一点。

Fergus Edwards, head of debt syndicate in Asia at UBS, said: “Over the past five years we have seen Chinese domestic bond markets take incremental steps forward, adding both depth and sophistication.

瑞银(UBS)负责亚洲债券辛迪加业务的弗格斯·爱德华兹(Fergus Edwards)说：“过去五年来，中国国内债券市场逐步前进，市场深度和老练度不断增强。

“Importantly, the process for regulatory approval is now considerably faster and smoother than in the past.”

“重要的是，现在监管部门的批准程序比过去快得多，也流畅得多。”

He added that many issuers thought it was sensible to lock in fixed rate financing at a time when interest rates are low and before volatility returned.

他补充说，许多发行企业认为，在利率较低且市场波动还不大时，锁定固定利率的融资乃是明智之举。

In the year to June, Chinese companies including financials issued $144.3bn worth of corporate bonds, compared with Japan's $123.6bn, according to Dealogic data.

Dealogic的数据显示，在截至6月份的一年中，包括金融机构在内的中国公司共发行了1443亿美元的债券，同期日本的数据是1236亿美元。

In the first half of 2009 alone, Chinese issuance was a record $96.7bn while Japan's reached $76.3bn, the data showed.

数据显示，单是在2009年上半年，中国的债券发行就达到创纪录的967亿美元，日本则为763亿美元。

The Chinese market has grown from $12.2bn in 2004 to $67.4bn in 2008, with a notable surge in issuance in 2007. “It's important to remember that the pool of investable assets is relatively shallow in China which leaves relatively large pools of savings held in the banking and insurance systems; in turn this increases the funds institutional investors have,” said Mr Edwards.

中国市场已经从2004年的122亿美元增长到2008年的674亿美元，其间2007年发行量激增。“重要的是，要记得，在中国可投资的资产范围相对狭窄，这使得银行和保险系统拥有的储蓄金额较为庞大，这进而增加了机构投资者的资金量，”爱德华兹说。

译者/力文