Open cooperation in focus as 2023 Financial Street Forum closes

Officials and business executives highlighted the importance of openness and cooperation in China's financial sector at the 2023 Financial Street Forum which closed on Friday in Beijing.

More than 400 prominent guests from over 30 countries and regions around the world shared their views on current economic and financial topics. They explored international cooperation opportunities, ways to overcome global economic challenges, and deliberated on how the financial sector can better contribute to economic development.

This year is a key year for the continued deepening of reforms in China's financial sector. The recently held China's central financial work conference clarified the goal of accelerating the building of a strong financial system. Participants at the forum focused on this theme, sharing their ideas on how to achieve those goals.

Li Yang, chairman of the National Institution for Finance and Development, said that "building a strong financial country" should embody both world commonalities and Chinese characteristics. In recent years, China has developed rapidly in terms of the size of financial institutions and markets, and the Chinese government can cope with various shocks, Li said.

Li Daokui, director of the Academic Center for Chinese Economic Practice and Thinking at Tsinghua University, said China needs to expand its government bond market to reduce financial risks, build a strong financial sector and contribute to global financial stability. He explained that China's national debt has greater room to increase in terms of its proportion to GDP and proportion held by overseas investors, and can help establish a long-term mechanism to prevent and defuse local debt risks.

This year's forum also focused on improving the financial system, optimizing financial services, preventing and defusing financial risks, and other hot issues. It was reported that the forum achieved more than 30 important results relating to areas including policies and norms, initiative conventions, and annual report indexes.