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

i would like to brief you on the work of the people ’ s bank of china ( pbc ) in practicing sound monetary policy in a more flexible and appropriate manner and implementing the requirements of the government work report on securing market entities in the fight against the covid - 19 pandemic since the beginning of this year. first, by leveraging quantitative monetary policy tools, we expanded aggregate supply with a focus on easing financing difficulties. in h1 2020, with respect to monetary policy, we rolled out a mix of forceful supporting measures, including three rounds of required reserve ratio ( rrr ) cut, additional rmb1. 8 trillion quotas for central bank lending and central bank discount, a program for supporting credit - based loans to micro and small businesses ( msbs ), and the phased deferment of loan principal and interest repayments for micro, small and medium - sized enterprises ( msmes ). these measures have yielded solid results. at end - may, the growth rates of broad money ( m2 ) and the aggregate financing to the real economy ( afre ) reached 11. 1 percent and 12. 5 percent respectively, both remarkably higher than those of last year. the stock market, bond market, foreign exchange market and rmb exchange rate were generally stable. since q2 2020, china ’ s major macroeconomic indicators have displayed favorable signs of recovery. in h2 2020, we will continue to keep liquidity adequate at a reasonable level through monetary policies, which is expected to bring about expansion in rmb loans by nearly rmb20 trillion and growth in afre by over rmb30 trillion throughout the year. second, by advancing the market - based interest rate reform, we guided a continuous decline of market rates and promoted the financial sector to reasonably mark down profits to support enterprises, in an attempt to alleviate high financing costs. since the beginning of 2020, the financial sector has marked down profits to support enterprises in three ways, namely lowering interest rates, adopting monetary policy tools that can directly support the real economy, and reducing banks ’ charges. it is estimated that, with these measures, the financial system will mark down rmb1. 5 trillion worth of profits to support enterprises throughout the year. 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches third, by strengthening write - offs and disposal of bank non - performing loans ( npls ), we made efforts to solve the sustainability problem related to the support of the financial sector for the real economy. under the impact of the