Steadily advancing the high-level opening up of the financial industry is an inherent requirement for high-quality economic development and an urgent need for the development of the financial industry itself. Since 2013 , the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and the Lingang New Area of the Free Trade Zone have been successively established. Over the past 10 years, Shanghai has taken the lead in deepening financial reform and expanding financial opening-up, carried out a series of active explorations, and formed a batch of "Shanghai experience" that can be replicated and promoted.
Next, how to further enhance the functions of the free trade zone and promote high-level financial reform and opening up? How to handle the relationship between financial opening and risk prevention? At the second plenary session of the Lujiazui Forum, the guests discussed this.
Shanghai Free Trade Zone Financial Opening Highlights Four Aspects
Zhou Xiaochuan, vice chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia and chief representative of the Chinese side, believes that in order to further expand the construction of Shanghai as an international financial center, the focus may still be on the main products of the capital market, such as stocks, bonds, foreign exchange, credit, and payment. A greater degree of market opening in terms of other aspects requires a significant increase in the degree of free use of the renminbi, an increase in the level of renminbi convertibility, and further reform of the foreign exchange management system.
"Of course, the realization of free use and free convertibility does not mean 100% . When the free use and convertibility of the RMB is realized, we must also pay attention to the concerns about the balance of payments and the exchange rate formation mechanism. , the construction of Shanghai as an international financial center has the opportunity to move forward substantially to a higher level, and the international status of the RMB is also expected to gradually improve." He emphasized.
According to Tu Guangshao, chairman of Shanghai New Finance Research Institute and executive director of Shanghai Advanced Finance Institute of Shanghai Jiaotong University, the "three ones" can be used to evaluate the role played by the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. "The first 'one' is to establish the deepening of the reform of the government system as the focus, and at the same time to be guided by the high standard rules of international trade and investment, to expand the opening of investment fields, to promote the transformation of trade development methods, and to promote the development of modern service industries. A set of institutional systems. The second "one" is to form a group of experiences and practices that can be replicated and promoted in other places. The third "one" is to promote the country's high-level opening up to the outside world. steps."
Tu Guangshao also pointed out that finance, as an important part of the construction of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, has highlighted four aspects in terms of opening up. "First, a set of free trade accounts in the free trade zone has been established, mainly a system of separate accounting. Second, major adjustments have been made in the macro-prudential supervision of overseas financing and cross-border capital flows, and the pre-approval of overseas financing has been cancelled. This is the adjustment of the management method, which played a very important role in overseas financing and cross-border capital flow at that time and in the later period. The third is to promote a group of securities trading institutions and stock exchanges in the free trade zone. The free trade zone has set up a trading platform for international investors, which has played a certain role in the internationalization of Shanghai's financial market. Fourth, it has attracted a large number of institutions, especially overseas financial institutions. Concentration of free trade zones. These four aspects not only drive the opening up of finance, but also serve the real economy of free trade zones.”
Learn from international experience to form more cooperation
In the construction of free trade zones and financial opening, international experience is also an important reference dimension. At the meeting, Liang Xinsong, deputy governor of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, introduced three key goals of Singapore: to ensure that the financial industry fully supports the real economy, connects the market, supports the development of Asia, and supports Singapore's economy; from a structural point of view, for Prepare for future growth; take advantage of the new opportunities of digitalization, Singapore, China and other countries in East Asia to achieve interconnection, gain growth benefits and opportunities in trade and finance, while avoiding the impact of economic fluctuations.
"Singapore is getting more and more deeply involved in China's reform and opening up. I believe that we can do a lot in the future to further strengthen the interconnection with Shanghai through key cooperation mechanisms and platforms, such as the China-Singapore bilateral joint mechanism and the China-Singapore bilateral cooperation mechanism. The cooperation mechanism creates more business opportunities and brings more convenience to trade and financial cooperation." Liang Xinsong said.
Christopher HAYWARD, Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee of the City of London Government , shared London's experience and expressed his expectation for cooperation with China and Shanghai. "China's free trade zone, especially the free trade zone project led by Shanghai, has not only created a more professional and advanced financial system, but also opened up new financial opportunities for China and the global market, promoting further in-depth development. He also said that the City of London supports open reforms, including the internationalization of the renminbi, and supports the establishment of the London RMB Market Supervision Working Group and the UK and China Green Finance Working Group to promote the development of green finance in Shanghai. "Shanghai is facing the next stage of development of the Free Trade Zone, and we look forward to continuing to participate in the discussions."
In the future, a more solid foundation and functional deepening are required
The participants also gave their own suggestions for the next step of Shanghai Free Trade Zone and financial center construction.
Liang Xinsong believes that if Shanghai wants to become an international financial center, it must have a very solid foundation. He said that the first foundation is to serve the domestic economy. Under the current circumstances, a large amount of financing is required to carry out low-carbon transformation, which is an effective role that financial centers must play. The second foundation is to have good macroeconomic policies and solid supervision. The supervision capacity must be further strengthened, and at the same time, it must keep up with the pace of financial development. If this is done well, it will become the best tool to ensure that On the one hand, it can obtain the growth brought by the economic center, and at the same time, it can effectively and properly manage risks. The third foundation, the internationalization of the renminbi, requires extensive participation in a very liquid capital market and provides equal opportunities for domestic and foreign finance.
Regarding the deepening of the functions of the construction of Shanghai International Financial Center, Tu Guangshao believes that we should start from three aspects: one is to focus on new goals under the new situation, such as promoting technological innovation, promoting green and low-carbon development, and promoting digital transformation; the other is to improve functions , to improve functions in three aspects: asset pricing, resource allocation, and risk management; the third is to further deepen reform and expand opening up, especially to pay special attention to high-level opening up, from market opening to institutional opening, from traditional factors to opening up The opening of new elements and the opening of the sustainable financial field have changed from "border" opening to "behind the border" opening, so that overseas funds, overseas investors, and overseas institutions can better match national treatment.
Source of information: Released by Pudong
