Financial sector to take global role

Capital market expected to be more active, says CSRC vice-chairman

China's financial sector will play an important role in changing the world economy in the coming decades, when financial resources could be allocated worldwide more efficiently through supportive opening-up measures, a senior official of the nation's securities watchdog said on Tuesday in Boao, Hainan province.

China still needs huge capital investment in the future, although it already has the world's largest stockpile of savings, and it requires a more open financial system to allocate financial resources globally, Fang Xinghai, vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said at the Boao Forum for Asia 2018.

As more opening-up measures will take effect in the near future, "China's capital market is expected to be more active and developed," said Fang, in response to a speech delivered by President Xi Jinping on Tuesday morning announcing a number of landmark measures that are to be launched this year to broaden market access in the service sector, especially for financial service business.

Xi stressed that the measures will include accelerating the opening-up of the insurance industry, easing restrictions on the establishment of foreign financial institutions in China and expanding their business scope, and opening up more areas of cooperation between Chinese and foreign financial markets.

"We as the country's financial regulator have responsibility to implement the measures and achieve the target raised by the president, and a stronger financial sector in China will change the world in the next 40 years," Fang said.

Xi said in the speech that China's opening-up during the past 40 years has played an important role in changing the country, which achieved an average annual GDP growth of around 9.5 percent in comparable prices and an average annual trade growth of 14.5 percent in dollar terms.

In addition, China made a significant contribution to mitigating the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s and the global financial crisis a decade ago, accounting for more than 30 percent of global growth in recent years.

China has also become a key anchor and driver of the world economy and a positive force in advancing the noble cause of global peace and development.

Former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said on Tuesday that from Xi's speech, "we see China is predictable", as it has three levels of strategies to achieve the opening-up goals - vision, action and organization.

"We know where China wants to go and what the people want to do from the speech," said Raffarin, who said that the opening-up measures are feasible, because there are "great projects" to support, especially for the Belt and Road Initiative.

Ban Ki-moon, former secretary-general of the United Nations, said the speech is "impressive", and the Belt and Road Initiative will continue to be a "good initiative" reflecting that China, as the world's second-largest economy and a responsible leader, knows how to share its successful development experience, resources and assets with other economies.