Every evening during the Two Sessions, we'll recap the most important developments of the day. Tonight we focus on a press conference by the People's Bank of China -- the country's central bank.
Zhou Xiaochuan, the bank's governor, said China would likely reduce its reliance on wide capital support for economic growth as the country seeks high-quality development. He said China has eased the growth of debt and was now stabilizing the leverage level. Zhou said the country would be bolder in opening up its financial sector, but it should focus on serving the real economy. He added that China was in no hurry to develop a digital currency. Another official said economic fundamentals and a stable yuan would keep China's foreign exchange reserves basically stable and the country's for-ex reserves had been steadily on the rise before February downturn. He said financial risk in China's property market was controllable as the country had implemented a string of prudential regulation policies.
The "Ministers' Corridor" was open again on Friday, and we got some comment from some of China's high-level officials on the day's proceedings.
ZHANG XIAOMING DIRECTOR, HONG KONG & MACAU AFFAIRS OFFICE "We need to adjust and improve the relevant legal policies and institutional mechanism, to promote the circulation of personnel, cargo, funds, and information in the Greater Bay Area."
HE LIFENG DIRECTOR, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT & REFORM COMMISSION "We will build the Greater Bay Area a world-class Bay area, and a world-class urban agglomeration."
GUO SHUQING CHAIRMAN, CHINA BANKING REGULATORY COMMISSION "We should stabilize the leverage ratio. The leverage ratio of the government, of the enterprises, and households should all be reduced."
At what's known as the "Delegates' Corridor", lawmakers shared their proposals and experience on "Made in China".
LEI JUN NPC DEPUTY & XIAOMI CEO "Soft power means mainly the capability to design and improve the user experience. We must have a say in design and have a lot of talent in this area."
DONG MINGZHU NPC DEPUTY & CHAIRPERSON OF GREE ELECTRIC "We must develop our own core technologies, and have consumer demand to support our products. We also need more advanced equipment."