China Daily:
The COVID-19 outbreak has indeed brought about a big impact on the Chinese economy, so how will it affect the process of financial opening-up?
Chen Yulu:
Opening-up is China's fundamental State policy, and being open and inclusive is our cultural tradition. Since 2018, the financial system has firmly implemented the spirit of President Xi Jinping's speech during the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference, and has unveiled more than 40 measures to expand financial openness. All these measures are powerful and influential, and most of them have been well implemented. The other measures should be implemented in a timely way after the revision of relevant laws and regulations.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the financial system has been unsparing in efforts to support prevention and control of the epidemic and ensure orderly work resumption; in addition, it has been putting financial opening-up measures into place without pause. For instance, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) and China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission approved the application of Mastercard's Chinese joint venture to set up a bank card clearing institution on Feb 11, which is a very good example. On Feb. 14, the PBOC in collaboration with relevant departments released a guideline regarding speeding up efforts to build up Shanghai as an international financial hub as well as being the source of financial support for the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta area. Among the 30 newly introduced measures, 11 involve further promoting high-level financial opening-up in Shanghai.
The international community has positively commented on these financial opening-up measures unveiled in the midst of the outbreak prevention and control. This year is very crucial for China's financial openness, because the lifting of foreign ownership caps in securities, fund management and futures has been moved up from 2021 to 2020. We are now working intensively to assist related departments to advance the revision of relevant laws and regulations to make sure all these measures are implemented on time.
The implementation of all these measures lay a solid foundation for further promoting the pre-establishment national treatment and negative list. Of course, we have also been improving our ability to prevent and control risks while further opening up the financial sector. We will strengthen the macroprudential management and building of modern financial regulatory framework to establish a risk prevention and control system that is compatible with opening-up at an even higher level.
Hu Kaihong:
The press conference concludes here, so, thank you all.
Translated and edited by Zhang Liying, Li Xiao, Zhang Jiaqi, Wu Jin, Wang Yiming, Lin Liyao, Mi Xingang, Zhang Junmian, Zhang Rui, Duan Yaying, Wang Yanfang, Zhu Bochen, Li Huiru, Yang Xi, Huang Shan, Wang Wei, Yuan Fang, He Shan, Zhou Jing, Wang Qian, Guo Xiaohong, Jay Birbeck, Laura Zheng, Geoffrey Murray. In case of any dispute over a discrepancy, the Chinese version is deemed to prevail.
