Regulator says China to fully open capital market

China will open its capital market wider to the world, shifting from being partially open to full-scale and institutional opening-up, an official with the country’s securities regulator said on Saturday.

Fang Xinghai, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, made the remarks in a speech at the second Bund Summit in Shanghai.

While adhering to the direction of market-oriented, law-based and internationalized development, China will steadily ease cross-border investment and financing restrictions, pay more attention to deeper institution and rule alignment, and continue to enhance the predictability and stability of policies, he said.

Opening-up and cooperation has always been the principle and direction of China’s capital market since its establishment 30 years ago, according to Fang, who noted that foreign institutional investors are gaining a significantly larger share in the A-share market in recent years.

“This has fully reflected global investors’ recognition of the prospects of the A-share market and China’s economic development, and played a positive role in effectively dealing with the epidemic’s impact and maintaining the market stable,” he told the summit.

Fang pledged further opening-up of both the capital market and products, as well as efforts to continue improving the level of openness for the industries of securities, funds and futures.

He also stressed the need to boost international regulatory cooperation. China will work more closely with overseas regulators and international financial organizations and crack down on financial fraud in cross-border listings and securities issuance, he said.

China will also strengthen supervision amid higher-level opening-up by improving cross-border capital flow monitoring and advancing cross-border regulatory cooperation and law enforcement mechanisms in terms of data reporting and investor protection, according to Fang.

Yi Gang, governor of the People’s Bank of China, said in a speech via video link that China will continue pushing forward the opening-up of the financial industry and create a market-oriented, law-based international business environment.

The country is working toward the full implementation of the “pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list” management system for foreign investment, he said, noting that coordinated efforts should be made to promote the opening-up of financial services, reform of the yuan’s exchange rate formation mechanism, and the yuan’s internationalization.

Vice President Wang Qishan stressed accelerating the establishment of a new development paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other. It should focus on adapting to the changing environment, transforming the growth model, and further deepening reform and opening up, he said.