Two pedestrians walk past a huge logo of the Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum 2023 in Beijing on November 8, 2023. More than 400 participants from over 30 countries and regions have been invited to attend this year's annual conference to exchange views on current economic and financial topics. Photo: VCG

Chinese financial regulators on Wednesday vowed to put in place intensified regulations to prevent financial risks while deepening supply-side reforms and expanding opening-up in the sector, as the just-closed Central Financial Work Conference urges greater efforts to accelerate the building of a country with a strong financial sector.

By fully implementing the spirit of the Central Financial Work Conference, we will step up cross-cyclical and counter-cyclical adjustments with monetary policies to maintain reasonable and ample liquidity to support stable economic growth, and more support will be given to strategic, key and weak links, Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, said at the opening ceremony of the Financial Street Forum annual conference that kicked off in Beijing on Wednesday.

Pan said the financial sector will help local governments dissolve debt risks, and ensure stable and healthy development of the housing market. In addition, supply-side reform of the financial sector will be deepened, with market-oriented reform on interest rates and exchange rates to be further boosted to accelerate the building of a modern financial system with Chinese characteristics.

Yi Huiman, chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), Li Yunze, head of the National Financial Regulatory Administration and other senior officials, also addressed the opening ceremony.

Strengthening the supervision of the capital market, maintaining market order and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of investors, and preventing and resolving financial risks are the top and legal responsibility of the CSRC, Yi said.

Reforms will be enhanced as well, he said. The registration-based IPO reform is by no means a relaxation of regulations, as it aims to achieve a better synergy between an efficient market and an active government. In practice, the reform has led to even stricter regulatory measures, most notably, the enhancement of transparency, Yi stressed.

At a time when the whole country is closely following the Central Financial Work Conference, the holding of the Financial Street Forum annual conference has a special meaning, Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

He said the great goal of building a country with a strong financial sector injects strong momentum to the country's high-quality development, and the financial sector is ushering in important opportunities.

In recent days, Chinese leading financial institutions including Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China carried out studies of the spirit of the key conference.

Bank of China said it will play its role as a large state bank in stepping up efforts in areas of technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance. The bank will continue to be a major force in serving the real economy and a "ballast stone" in maintaining financial stability, it said.

The financial sector is the blood of a country's economy and a crucial component of a country's core competitiveness, therefore the building of a financial powerhouse is necessary for building a country with strong economic capability, said Guan Tao, global chief economist at BOC International under Bank of China.

Wang Peng, associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the senior financial officials' remarks at the forum provide more clues for understanding the important conference, which will help the financial industry to better serve the real economy, maintain financial stability, while being able to prevent and resolve systemic financial risks.

The current risks under China's financial systemic remains relatively controllable, but there are still certain issues that need to be addressed, such as the risks of small and medium-sized financial institutions and that of the real estate market, Wang said.

Since the end of July, the authorities have adopted multiple measures to dissolve local government debt, including the issuance of special refinancing bonds. In the future, a long-term mechanism on handling local government debt risks while establishing a local government management system that matches high-quality development may be put in place, Guan said.

In addition to effectively forestalling and defusing financial risks, the Central Financial Work Conference also stressed that the country will steadily expand institutional opening-up in the financial sector and facilitate cross-border investment and financing, so as to attract more foreign financial institutions and long-term capital to invest and operate in China.

"China will never stop its efforts in expanding financial opening-up, and its resolve to share development opportunities with the world will never change too," Li said at the opening ceremony.

Li said the financial regulators will further improve the system of pre-establishment national treatment plus a negative list, widen market access for foreign investment, and the financial system and policies will become more stable, predictable and transparent in order to strive to build a prudent and fair institutional environment.

China's efforts to build itself into a financial powerhouse will have a positive impact on the global financial system and will contribute to global financial stability and the establishment of a fairer and more equitable international financial system, Wang said.

Different from the US' financial hegemony, China's building of a country with a strong financial sector will benefit the real economy and the interests of all developing countries, Cong said.

By now, all of the world's 30 systemically important banks have established branches in China and nearly half of the world's 40 largest insurance firms have entered the China market, official data showed.

Benefiting from China's continuous opening-up, British multinational bank Standard Chartered has participated in a couple of milestone projects and gained multiple entry qualifications in the Chinese market. For example, it's the first foreign financial institution to set up a wholly owned securities firm in China.

As an international bank rooted in China for 165 years, Standard Chartered will play the role of a "connector." With our global network and quality and innovative cross-border financial services, the bank will help boost the trade and investment between China and the world while supporting the high-quality development of the real economy, Zhang Xiaolei, head of Standard Chartered China, was quoted as saying in a press release it sent to the Global Times.