capital and technology support for sustained and fast economic development in china. the size and dynamics of the chinese market have given european companies room for further development. strong economic complementarities between china and europe, as well as china and france have laid a solid foundation for strengthening our economic and financial ties. economic globalization has increasingly integrated the global capital market. financial institutions ’ expansion and information technology development have enabled them to provide financial services globally. cross - border m & a activities have increased tremendously both in terms of size and speed and blurred the nationalities of financial institutions. learning international experiences and adopting international best practices is one of the important principles in china ’ s reform and opening - up. in 1990 ’ s, china introduced the value - added tax ( vat ), which is a french invention. the reform has a large impact on china ’ s economic and trade development. we also felt that if we couldn ’ t have understood international experiences and followed the best practices, we would probably have zigzagged in our development or even paid a heave price. therefore, we value the opportunity to exchange views with our french friends. financial market has also shown a globalization trend. along with further reform and opening - up in china, foreign capitals will continue to participate in the chinese financial sector, while more and more chinese institutions and capitals will go abroad to actively participate in the financial globalization. chinese financial market has had much interaction with its foreign counterparts, a natural process of market development and selection, but there are still rooms and needs for countries to improve their market entry regulations. china committed itself to further open - up in the 5 - year transitional period when it joined the wto. the chinese government has reiterated the policy to further open - up in various important documents. sustained progress has been made in financial market reform and integration with the world market. we will continue efforts to develop financial market, further open up the market in a gradual and orderly manner and promote rmb ’ s free convertibility steadily. to conclude my speech, i wish the forum a great success and all participants good health!

yi gang : welcome address – 11th lujiazui forum welcome address by mr yi gang, governor of the people's bank of china, at the 11th lujiazui forum, shanghai, 14 june 2019. * * * honorable vice premier liu he, secretary li qiang, mr. zhou xiaochuan, ladies and gentlemen, vice premier liu he has just elaborated in his speech on the triangular framework in the economy made up of supply, demand and the financial system. he has underscored the importance of following market - oriented and law - based reform approaches and drawing on international practice to promote the healthy development of the stock market, particularly the star market. also he has put forward requirements on accelerating the development of shanghai as an international financial center, which are highly instructive as to what we should do in the financial field to provide support. next, in line with the theme for this forum “ accelerating the international financial center development and promoting high quality economic growth ”, i want to give my opinions from the following three aspects. first, impressive progress has been achieved in the development of shanghai as an international financial center. 1. the financial market system has been undergoing improvement, featuring more of the essential factors. so far, there have been all types of major financial markets in shanghai, such as the stock market, the bond market, the money market, the foreign exchange market, the commercial paper market, the futures market, the gold market and the insurance market, with trading volumes in quite a number of varieties ranking high globally. 2. the system of financial institutions has further grown so that the influence of shanghai as a financial center has risen significantly. in recent years, as a host of important financial institutions or organizations have come to be based in shanghai, such as the brics new development bank, the global association of central counterparties ( ccp12 ), the cross - border interbank payment system ( cips ), the china insurance investment fund, and the national internet finance association of china, the radiant effect and influence of shanghai ’ s financial industry have been enhanced remarkably. as shown by the latest two editions of the global financial centres index ( gfci ) released by z / yen, a british think - tank, shanghai ranks fifth among the world ’ s financial hubs. 3. the progressive opening - up of the financial sector has contributed significantly to the city ’ s international competitiveness. shanghai has become home to a large number of foreign - funded financial institutions