(Members of WFE Board of Directors)
With tides surging in the east, all rivers run into the sea. Recently, as the chairman exchange for the board of directors of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has hosted the two-day WFE board of directors meeting and the summit forum on capital market development with the great trust of the industry stakeholders. Attending and addressing the event were Yan Qingmin, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), Wu Qing, vice mayor of Shanghai and chairman of WFE, Nandini Sukumar, CEO of WFE, and Huang Hongyuan, Party chief and chairman of SSE, and Jiang Feng, deputy Party chief and president of SSE, was also present at the event. The chiefs of the exchanges in various countries and regions across the world gathered in Shanghai to discuss the international development of the capital markets, building Shanghai as an international financial centre, FinTech regulation, green finance and other cutting-edge topics. Sharing views at the forum were about 56 representatives of exchanges, market institutions and associations from home and abroad.
Fruitful results have been achieved at the WFE board of directors meeting, including the improvement of the industry governance norms for the exchanges, the development of the 2018-2019 work plan, the review of the financial budget and final accounts and so on. Particularly, in order to implement the "green development" concept put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping as well as the guiding opinions of CSRC on supporting the development of green bonds, Wu officially proposed to formulate the Sustainable Stock Exchange Principles, the guidelines for the exchange industry, at the last meeting of the board of directors. Formal results were achieved for the guidelines during this meeting, providing the principles that global exchanges are expected to follow in their sustainable development. The initiative not only shows China's effective exploration in supporting the development of the green financial system, but also reflects the increasingly important role and active and effective efforts of the Chinese exchanges in the process of participating in global economic governance.
In his speech, Yan said that this year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up. In the great course of reform and opening up, China's capital market has continued to grow and develop, and is going global with a more open attitude toward the world. The A shares have been formally included the MSCI Emerging Market Index, and the market connectivity has been further deepened and expanded, as the preparatory work for Shanghai-London Stock Connect is being advanced in an active and orderly way, the policy for significantly reducing the limits on foreign investment in the securities, fund and futures industries is being implemented, the pilot program for H-share "Full Circulation" has been successfully initiated, the crude oil futures have been launched smoothly, and the overseas investors have been introduced to trade the iron ore futures. It is safe to say that China's capital market has shown increasing vitality with even closer connectivity with the outside world. Going forward, we look forward to further strengthening communication with WFE and cooperation with exchanges across the world. We will unswervingly accelerate the reform and opening up of China's capital market, so as to jointly strive for mutual benefit and win-win results.
Wu said that as China's largest economic center city and the frontline for reform and opening up, Shanghai has served as China's financial center with the financial market system as its core. It has been a proved rule during the 40-year reform and opening up to propel reform through opening up, seek development in the process of opening up and make effective use of the resources at home and abroad, and it is also the direction for the internationalization of China's capital market and the construction of Shanghai as an international financial center. With the courage to open a new chapter for reform and opening up, we will make more efforts and take more effective measures to boost the high-level reform and opening up in Shanghai's financial industry, so as to live up to the role of vanguard and pioneer in the new era.
Sukumar said at the meeting that as an industry organization representing the exchanges and the clearing houses, WFE has always been committed to promoting the industry standards and the best practices of the exchanges, providing investors with a better market environment and improving the market infrastructure for the future, and has set up a solid bridge and an important cooperation and communication platform for the mutual opening of the capital markets in different countries and regions. In the future, WFE expects to work with the seven WFE member institutions in China to jointly develop more efficient market infrastructure.
The representatives of the exchanges from various countries and regions attending the event expressed their high recognition and praise for the achievements made in the internationalization of China's capital market. The attendees agreed that over the years, China's capital market has been practicing the opening-up concepts, expanding the opening-up scope, and uplifting the opening-up level, in an effort to build a modern multi-level capital market with international competitiveness. China is gradually becoming an important destination for the global capital allocation, fully demonstrating the world's confidence in and expectation for the development of China's capital market.
The door to China's capital market will not be closed, and it will only open wider and wider. Huang pointed out in his speech that the Chinese capital market is entering a new phase of rapid opening up, and SSE shoulders more important responsibilities and missions than ever before. Therefore, it is even more imperative to strengthen cooperation among the exchanges. The SSE will continue to uphold its cultural value of "utmost integrity and fairness for global financing", focus on supporting and serving the "Belt and Road" initiative, and strengthen cooperation with overseas exchanges; it will improve the capacity for bolstering the real economy, support the emerging and innovative companies in going public, develop in Shanghai with a world vision, contribute to the construction of Shanghai as an international financial center and strive to build itself into a world-leading exchange, which plays its due role in China as a great modern socialist country with Chinese characteristics.
