How to enhance the momentum of financial development with a higher level of openness
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "We must expand opening up to the outside world, improve the efficiency and capacity of our country's financial resource allocation, enhance international competitiveness and the influence of rules, and steadily and prudently grasp the rhythm and intensity."
The relevant person in charge of the International Department of the People's Bank of China said that in order to enhance the momentum of financial development through higher-level opening up, the following key tasks are required:
Promote the opening up of the financial services industry in an orderly manner - further improve the pre-entry national treatment plus negative list management system, continue to optimize the procedures for foreign capital to enter the Chinese market and do business, and adhere to equal treatment of domestic and foreign financial institutions when conducting new business pilots;
Steadily promote high-level opening-up of financial markets - improve various market interconnection mechanisms, enrich investable industries and asset types, and further enhance the convenience of foreign investment in the Chinese market;
Steadily, prudently and solidly promote the internationalization of the RMB - continue to adhere to the market-driven, mutually beneficial and win-win principles, focus on trade and investment facilitation, and continuously optimize the basic institutional arrangements such as cross-border RMB investment and financing, transaction settlement, etc.
Continue to improve financial supervision - improve the risk prevention and control system that is compatible with the requirements of high-level opening up of the financial industry, build various "firewalls", and resolutely maintain the bottom line of preventing systemic financial risks.
"We will deepen cross-border regulatory cooperation to ensure that the overall risks of foreign-funded financial institutions in China are controllable. At the same time, we will carry out moderately differentiated supervision in response to the difficulties and challenges faced by foreign-funded institutions in their development, further enhance the convenience of doing business for foreign-funded financial institutions in China, and further stimulate the vitality of business entities." said a relevant person in charge of the International Cooperation Department of the State Financial Supervision and Administration.
To promote high-level financial opening-up, we must focus on improving the level of institutional opening-up in the financial sector. Since 2018, financial management departments have launched more than 50 financial opening-up policy measures, many of which are related to institutional opening-up. A relevant person in charge of the International Cooperation Department of the State Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau said that they will further benchmark the relevant rules in the financial field in international high-standard economic and trade agreements, and on the basis of implementing the pre-entry national treatment plus negative list management system, adhere to the principles of marketization, rule of law, and internationalization, and welcome all kinds of foreign institutions and long-term capital to come to China to develop their businesses.
"In terms of promoting the facilitation of cross-border investment and financing, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange will promote the implementation of cross-border trade and investment facilitation policies this year, and promote the expansion of the pilot program of high-level opening-up policies for cross-border trade and investment in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Beijing, Zhejiang, and Hainan provinces. It will promote the optimization and expansion of pilot policies in a timely manner to facilitate more business entities to handle cross-border trade and investment business in compliance with regulations." said Xiao Sheng, Director of the Capital Project Management Department of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.
