Focus on opening-up of the market 
2019-06-14
CHINA will further reform and open up its financial markets, provide more financial support for the real economy and enhance the adaptability of financial supplies, top officials said yesterday.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said that the country is currently under some external pressure, but this will help improve its ability for independent innovation and speed up economic development.
China has plenty of policy tools and is capable of dealing with various challenges, Liu said.
“No matter what occurs temporarily, the long-term positive momentum for China’s economy will not be changed,” he said.
He said the Chinese government will further launch “vigorous” reform and opening-up measures in the near future.
For the capital markets, Liu noted more efforts should be made to accelerate the reform of basic financial systems for the issuance, listing and delisting of securities on stock exchanges, and the reform of the trading system to make it more market-oriented and accessible.
The central government vowed to unveil more measures to make the financial sector serve the real economy, and improve the adaptability of financial supply while preventing financial risks and balancing the strength and rhythm of risk disposal.
China will speed up reform by facilitating market access to foreign participants, promoting equal competition among domestic and overseas players, and enhancing the protection of intellectual property rights, Liu said.
Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, spoke highly of Shanghai’s efforts in building itself toward a global financial hub. He said the achievements “have impressed the whole world.” He pointed out, however, more work needs to be done to improve the competitiveness of domestic financial institutions due to their lack of variety.
Guo noted the country would further expand financial opening to the outside world and would welcome high-level foreign-funded institutions including banks, insurance companies, securities houses and trust firms.
Quality foreign-invested asset managers are welcome to raise yuan funds and make investments in the Chinese capital market. To keep the financial sector in order, supervisors must strictly and resolutely enforce relevant laws and regulations and ensure violators are severely punished in a timely manner, the chairman said.
Guo noted the watchdog would be committed to preventing the resurgence of financial products with complex structures and make great efforts to deal with the problem of idle running of funds. During the past two years, the CBIRC has continuously cracked down on market turmoil and lowered enterprises’ financing costs by reducing 13.74 trillion yuan (US$1.98 trillion) of risky assets and shortening the financing chain.
Yi Gang, governor of the People’s Bank of China, said at the forum that Shanghai has made positive progress in turning itself into an international financial center.
He noted the central bank would continue to lend strong support to make the city an allocation center for yuan-denominated financial assets.
Looking forward, the governor predicted international competition would center on financial technologies. The PBOC would actively support Shanghai’s exploration of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and block chain in the financial sector. Attracting and retaining talent would be key to that goal and Shanghai should strive to become the place where global financial professionals aspire to be, Yi added.
Yi Huiman, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, declared that opening to the outside world would be an unswerving development direction for the capital market. It would launch nine measures to widen foreign investors’ access to the financial industry.
Market entry restrictions for foreign investment in securities would be relaxed, the regulator said. They would also continue to enlarge the opening of the futures market and reduce restrictions on the participation of foreign private equity funds in the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect project.
Channels for overseas institutional investment to enter the bond exchange would also be expanded, Yi Huiman said.
CSRC vowed to support a pilot project in Shanghai which would lift the ceiling on foreign investors’ ownership in securities companies and fund management companies, and also expand the business scope of foreign financial institutions, aiming to fully support the construction of the newly launched STAR Market.
