On April 20, 2019, China Finance 40 Forum (CF40) held its eleventh Annual Conference with the theme "Changes and Solutions: the Next Stage of China's Economic and Financial Reform". More than 300 experts attended the conference including CF40 advisors and members, representatives of member institutions, as well as representatives of think tanks from Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao and Tianjin. JD Digits provided support for the conference.
At the conference, Chen Yuan, Chairman of CF40 Executive Council and Vice Chairman of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), delivered the opening speech. "The world is undergoing changes unprecedented in the past century, which brought both opportunities and challenges to China's economy." He said, "our discussion today about China's economic and financial reform will be of great significance."
China was confronted with a complex and grim situation in 2018. Externally, economic globalization and multilateralism were put under threat, and the international financial market was in turmoil. Domestically, the growing pains of economic transformation surged, and cyclical and structural problems superposed, making policy choices even more difficult.
"Over the past year, China Finance 40 Forum has conducted research on key issues such as Sino-US economic and trade frictions and financial risk prevention. It has formed a series of high-quality deliverables, and provided valuable policy recommendations for decision makers." Chen Yuan said.
In March this year, Xiao Gang, a member of the National Committee of CPPCC and former Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and Zhang Xiaohui, former Assistant Governor of the People's Bank of China (PBC), joined CF40 as non-resident senior fellows. Chen Yuan presented letters of appointment to them at the conference.
Chen Yuan also presented awards to the winner of CF40 Outstanding Research Project of 2018. "Local Financial Supervision and Fintech Development" stood out among the six submitted projects and won the award.
Afterwards, Chen Yuan awarded certificates of honor to the authors of "CF40 Book of the Year" and "CF40 Recommended Books of 2018".
As the most important part of the annual conference, CF40 held a symposium themed on "Changes and Solutions: The Next Stage of China's Economic and Financial Reform". A number of leading experts and senior officials delivered keynote speeches, including Yan Qingmin, CF40 Advisor, Vice Chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission; Hu Xiaolian, CF40 Advisor and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of China; Miao Jianmin, Member of CF40 Executive Council, Chairman of People’s Insurance Company (Group) of China; Yin Yong, CF40 Member and Vice Mayor of Beijing Municipal Government; Li Bo, CF40 Invited Member and Vice Chairman of All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese; as well as Xiao Gang and Zhang Xiaohui, the two new senior fellows of CF40.
The discussion was hosted by CF40 Secretary-General Wang Haiming, and more than 200 experts joined the discussion.
In the afternoon, CF40 held three parallel sessions: "Macroeconomic Policy Mix for China’s Structural Transformation", "Financial Risk Prevention and Policy for Ensuring Both Economic Stability and Growth", and "Fintech Empowers the Development of Micro and Small Enterprises".
At the first session, Peng Wensheng, CF40 member, Vice President of the China Everbright Group Research Institute and Chief Global Economist of China Everbright Securities, delivered a keynote speech on current economic situation in China. Then CF40 senior fellow Zhang Bin released "Q1 2019 Macroeconomic Policy Report". Yin Yanlin, CF40 academic advisor and Deputy Director of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission, commented on the presentations. Wang Haiming, CF40 Secretary-General, presided over the session.
The second parallel session was themed "Financial Risk Prevention and Policy for Ensuring Both Economic Stability and Growth". He Dong, CF40 invited member and Deputy Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the IMF, delivered keynote speeches with Gao Shanwen, CF40 Academic Committee Member and Chief Economist of Essence Securities. Zhu Yunlai, CF40 invited guest, Wang Yi, CF40 member and Director-General of Department of Finance at the Ministry of Finance, Xiao Yuanqi, CF40 invited member and Chief Risk Officer of CBIRC provided comments. The session was chaired by Wang Xin, CF40 invited member and Director-General of the Research Bureau of the PBC.
The third session discussed how Fintech boosts the development of MSEs. Fan Wenzhong, CF40 member and Chairman of Beijing Financial Holdings Group, Chen Shengqiang, member of CF40 Executive Council and CEO of JD Digits, and Chen Qiao, representative of CF40 Council Member Institution and Vice-President of Webank, delivered keynote speeches. Then, Zou Lan, CF40 invited guest and Deputy Director-General of the Financial Market Department of the PBC, Zhang Chenghui, CF40 invited guest and former Director-General of the Research Institute of Finance at the Development Research Center of the State Council, provided commentary remarks. Liu Xiaochun, Vice President of SFI, moderated the discussion.
