In the afternoon of March 6, Liu Xingqiang, Deputy to the 11th NPC and President and CEO of the DCE, at Beijing attended the first press conference held by the CSRC on behalf of CSRC members, and was interviewed collectively by domestic and foreign media.
Liu Xingqiang first expressed his feelings after hearing the report on the work of the government. He said two particular points in the report draw his attention. First is to emphasize the need of bringing into better play of the fundamental role of markets in resource allocation, and the second is to propose the issue of solving "rural areas, agriculture and farmers three rurals" as the ultimate top priority, among all works.
When commenting on the issue of "playing the fundamental role of markets in resource allocation", Liu Xingqiang introduced the development of domestic futures markets as well as the DCE, pointed out that futures prices can guide production and consumption of goods, and emphasized that the futures market is an important marketplace in allocating resources and represents the most typical modern market mechanism with significant guiding ability. In order for the future market to bring better play of its fundamental role in resource allocation and to serve industries and the national economy, he pointed out the need to list more futures products and to broaden the areas covered by the futures market so that the futures market can play a greater role in controlling risks and stabilizing income for enterprises. He further introduced the development statuses of this year's new products from the DCE, and said the DCE will seek to list coking coal futures this year and at the same time enhance the development of agricultural futures in order to strengthen the services for the "three rurals".
When elaborating on the requirements of working on the issue of "three rurals" in the Premier's work report, he said, on the one hand, the futures market has already done a lot of work in serving the "three rurals", and on the other hand, more works need to be done for the futures market to better serve the "three rurals". He believes that serving the "three rurals" should focus on three aspects, first is to train and teach farmers and agribusinesses knowledge about futures in order to enhance their business awareness of modern markets and to let them know how to use futures as risk-managing tools, the second is to launch more agriculture-related futures products, and to list options on agricultural products at an appropriate time, and the third is to introduce relevant policies to encourage and support futures companies and other financial institutions to serve the "three rurals".
He said that the overall environment this year is more favorable than in the past for the development of futures markets, even though the report on the work o f the governmentdid not prescribe specific requirements on the futures market, however, the "12th Five-Year Plan" and this January's national financial work conference both explicitly specify the development of futures markets, so under these new situation and requirements, the futures market will usher in a new stage of development. The DCE will also follow the requirements of the State Council and the CSRC, actively grasp the needs of changing situations, and push the DCE work forward to a new level.
Subsequently, Liu Xingqiang answered reporters' thirteen questions one by one on various issues such as research and development statuses for coking coal, eggs, live pigs, iron ore and options, specific ways of serving the "three rurals" by the futures market, impacts on the futures market by curbing excessive speculation, distribution of interests between exchanges and futures companies, exchange settlement models, futures personnel training as well as contents of proposals to be submitted to the "two sessions".
Deputy Director of the CSRC General Office Wang Jianjun and Press Office staff attended the press conference on the day. Also participated in the conference are 58 journalists from 53 domestic and foreign media such as Xinhua News Agency, China Central Television, three major securities newspapers, 21st Century Business Herald, Reuters and hexun.com.
