Individuals interested in gold trade will be able to trade freely at the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) in about two months, according to SGE sources.

   Established in 2002, SGE has only allowed commercial-bank members to trade gold on its system. China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, approved at yearend 2006 that SGE members can open gold trade to individual investors nationwide but the policy remains to be fully implemented as commercial banks are relatively laggard in building trading systems for individuals.

   SGE, however, developed a system aimed at individual investors in March 2005 and trial operated it in Shanghai in July 2005.

   With commercial banks as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Shenzhen Development Bank all basically finishing building their individual-trading systems, nationwide individual gold trade can be expected within two months, SGE officials say, predicting that the Chinese gold market then will influence international gold prices then.

   After fully opening to domestic traders, the Chinese gold trading market may next aim at further embracing the global market. Some analysts say government authorities can study the feasibility of letting foreign commercial banks and large gold companies to trade at the Chinese market under the framework of QFII (qualified foreign institutional investors).