On April 1, a press conference held in Chengdu, during which four policy documents had been issued, including "Opinions on Implementation of Promoting Jiaozi Finance ‘5+2’ Platform & Constructing the Life-Cycle Investment and Financing Service System for SMEs", "Policy Measures on Expanding the Opening-up of Financial Service Industry to Promote the High-quality Development of the Real Economy", "Policy Measures for Supporting the Innovation and Development of Fintech Industry", and "Implementation Measures for Introducing and Cultivating Talents in Jiaozi Finance in Chengdu". This is another time for the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government of Chengdu to focus on adopting four special financial policies after issuing "Opinions on Further Speeding Up the Construction of China's Western Financial Center" in March last year. WANG Qing, Director of the ICFS, attended the press conference and taken questions from reporters on the background information and the significance of these four policies.
As for the question "what direction should Chengdu take to build a national financial center in the western region?", Prof. WANG Qing indicated that great achievements had been made in the construction of China's western financial center. At present, Chengdu is speeding up the construction of a national western financial center with international influence, turning from institutional finance to functional finance, from traditional finance to new financial transformation and development, so as to create a financial innovation and development path in line with its own resource endowment, regional characteristics and industrial characteristics.
In 2018, the added value of the financial industry in Chengdu is 175.02 billion yuan, accounting for 12% of GDP.
The balance of domestic and foreign currency deposits of financial institutions in Chengdu is 3.78 trillion yuan, ranking the fourth among the sub-provincial cities;
The balance of domestic and foreign currency loans is 3.26 trillion yuan, ranking fourth among sub-provincial cities.
The premium income is 92.71 billion yuan, ranking third among the sub-provincial cities.
According to the "Global Financial Centre Index (GFCI)" of the City of London in 2018, Chengdu ranked 79th in the world, continuing to lead Midwestern China.
In 2018, according to "China's Financial Center Index" and Tianfu Financial Index, Chengdu ranked 6th in China and 1st in western China.
In WANG's opinion, after one year's preparation, Chengdu's four special financial policies are targeted measures responded to the central government's accelerating the financial opening-up strategy, the detailed implementation of the top-level design for the construction of the national western financial center, and the action blueprint for Chengdu to promote the healthy and rapid development of the financial industry in the next step. It will certainly be conducive to promoting the construction of the national western financial center, which allows Chengdu to speed up its transformation into a city embodied the new development concept and strive to achieve the strategic goal of the "three-step strategy" of Chengdu in the new era.
As for the development direction of Chengdu's finance in the next step, WANG Qing deems that it is necessary to speed up the financial opening-up and reform in Chengdu and comprehensively improve the level of financial internationalization and financial innovation ability. The first is to build an international financial industry investment promotion system; set up points of contact for financial investment promotion in Hong Kong, London, New York, and other financial centers; carry out financial promotion activities; and focus on introducing legal person financial institutions, high-end intermediary service institutions, regional headquarters or functional headquarters of large financial groups, and branches of transnational financial enterprises. Secondly, build the "Belt and Road" financial service center to open a window for the financial opening showcase, and facilitate the cross-border investment and financing facilitation along the "Belt and Road". The third is to improve the financial talent service system. Relying on the policy documents issued this time, we will accelerate the cooperation with Peking University, SWUFE, and other well-known research institutions at home and abroad to establish a number of financial innovation laboratories and high-end think tanks to strengthen the support for international financial talents. Fourth, promote the integrated development of finance and technology, cooperate with domestic and foreign financial institutions and scientific research institutes to jointly build innovation carriers such as financial technology maker space, incubator, and laboratory, and build a fintech ecosystem covering the whole life-cycle of incubators, accelerators and industrial parks. We will accelerate the development of specialized institutions such as S&T insurance and small loans for S&T, explore new modes of S&T finance services such as the linkage between investment and loan, linkage between bank and insurance company, and improve the sci-tech finance service system.
