CHINA should borrow the experience of Hong Kong's banking industry to help improve its fiscal structure, according to a prominent Hong Kong banker David Li Kwok-po. Mr Li, a close adviser to Beijing and chief executive of the Bank of East Asia, made the remarks in an interview with the magazine Hong Kong and Macau Today. He said the benefits China could draw from Hong Kong were not merely generated from the investments brought into the mainland through the banking network in the territory. More importantly, he said, Hong Kong's banking system set an example of how to operate in a market economy without political intervention. Mr Li pointed to the significance of the international legal and accounting services available in Hong Kong, which were instrumental in building up the reputation of its banking industry. He noted that the banking experience in Hong Kong was also relevant to the ongoing exercise to revamp its financial order. The mainland financial sector could learn from the banking problems of Hong Kong in the past and the supervisory mechanism that had been established, Mr Li said. ''The lesson is that we should take precautionary measures before problems arise,'' he said.