A scene of Shanghai Photos: VCG

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday stressed staying committed to the path of financial development with Chinese characteristics and boosting the high-quality development of the financial sector. 

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when addressing the opening of a study session at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance), according to a report by the Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday.

During a crucial phase in the world's second-largest economy's pursuit of high-quality growth, Chinese observers emphasized that the words from China's top leadership highlighted key tasks ahead in building the country into a financial powerhouse. This is expected to create significant opportunities for both foreign and domestic financial institutions in the coming years.

While abiding by the objective laws of modern financial development, the path of financial development with Chinese characteristics enjoys features that better suit China's national conditions and is fundamentally different from the Western financial model, Xi said.

He called for firming up confidence and making sustained exploration and improvement to further broaden this path.

By boosting opening-up, China will work to enhance the efficiency and capability of financial resource allocation, improve global competitiveness and rule-making influence, and maintain a steady and prudent rhythm and intensity, Xi said.

A major difference between China's path of financial development with Chinese characteristics and that of Western countries is that China's financial sector is led by the CPC, centered on people, and serving the real economy as the fundamental mission, Cao Heping, an economist at Peking University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Building the country into a financial powerhouse will bring benefits to a wide range of small and medium-sized enterprises, common people and the middle class, he said.

A series of reform and opening-up measures have been rolled out in the financial sector since the beginning of 2023 to boost the construction of the nation into a financial powerhouse. 

Of milestone significance in the reform of China's capital market, China rolled out its across-the-board registration-based IPO system in February. The development of the Beijing Stock Exchange entered the fast lane of development amid the country's ramped-up efforts to strengthen financial support for technological innovation.

The National Administration of Financial Regulation was officially set up on May 18, marking an important step in the country's institutional reform of financial supervision.

Analysts said that in order to enhance the international competitiveness of China's financial sector, the country needs to promote the internationalization of the yuan and continue to expand financial opening-up.

"China has become a main trading partner of over 140 countries and regions and a primary source of investment for more countries. It's important for China to boost the yuan's role in international financing in international trade and projects, for example, the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway in Indonesia," Cao said.