HONG KONG-- China Construction Bank (CCB) has achieved excellent operating result in the first half of 2011, thanks to the increase of net interest income and intermediary business, CCB Executive Vice President Hu Zheyi said here on Monday.

CCB announced its interim results report on Monday. According to the report, the bank realized an operating income of 197.246 billion yuan (around $30.82 billion) or a year-on-year increase of 28.31 percent in the first half of 2011.

During the same period, its profit before tax and net profit were respectively 120.789 billion yuan and 92.953 billion yuan, which represented rapid growth rates of 31.02 percent and 31.33 percent respectively.

According to Hu, the rapid growth of income are mainly benefited from the increase of net interest income and intermediary business.

Net interest income has reached 145.71 billion yuan in the first six months of 2011, or a year-on-year increase of 23.69 percent.

Moreover, with its traditional interest-based business consolidated, CCB was able to maintain a fast pace of growth in its intermediary business.

In the first half of 2011, a net fee and commission income of 47.67 billion yuan was realized, up 41.7 percent from the same period last year, said the report.

Hu announced the bank would focus on intermediary business in its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015). "This is in accordance with the improvement of service as well as the increase of profit," he said.

Talking about the future cooperation with Bank of America, CCB President Zhang Jianguo said, the cooperation between CCB and Bank of America would be extended to the end of 2012, and discussions are under way about their future cooperation after 2012.

"Bank of American will continue to be the shareholder of CCB for a long time," he confirmed.

As for the risk of loans, CCB Chief Risk Officer Huang Zhiling said CCB's credit structure has been further optimized in the first half of 2011. Loans to sectors with higher potential risks were strictly controlled.

Till now, the local government financing vehicles loans accounts for about 10 percent of its total loans, with the related NPL coverage ratio of 325 percent. "The risks are controllable," he said.