The opening up of China's financial sector has been accelerating since the country joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. And China’s financial sector will be further opened up, according to the government work report delivered on Monday.

While some are concerned that more opening up of the financial sector will entail more financial regulation, experts say an overhaul of the financial regulation system is necessary to avoid systemic risks.

“So far, China’s financial supervision [has been] composed of separate supervisory bodies. Starting from this year, we have to reconsider the structure of supervision bodies in the Chinese financial sector in order that those loopholes will not continue to be the origin of a systemic crisiss,” said Ding Yifan, senior fellow of the Institute of World Development under the Development Research Center of the State Council.

Over the past five years, the government has made coordinated efforts in globalizing its currency, diversifying investment channels and allowing more overseas capital into the sector.

In 2015, China further fleshed out the exchange rate reform to shake off the yuan's dependency on the US dollar and let the broader market decide the rate. That helped push the yuan into the IMF's Special Drawing Rights basket a year later.

IMF data showed yuan-denominated forex reserves rose to 107.94 billion US dollars, or 1.12 percent of the world's total, as of the end of the third quarter last year.

Meanwhile, China has slashed two-thirds of the restrictions imposed on foreign direct investments, and shortened the negative list. The country also promised foreign investors larger ownership caps in insurance and banking sectors, and lifting the ceiling for foreign equity.

As 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up, the country is aiming to further raise the quality of foreign involvement in China’s markets as the country seeks high-quality development.

(CGTN’s Wang Yue also contributed to the story)

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