Changes in financial sector show that opening-up is accelerating

AT THE OPENING CEREMONY of the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2019, also known as Summer Davos, in Dalian, Liaoning province on Tuesday, Premier Li Keqiang reaffirmed China's commitment to further open up the economy to foreign investment. 21st Century Business Herald comments:

In his address, Li said China will unswervingly promote all-round opening-up and strive to develop an open economy at a higher level, and along with taking practical measures to deepen the opening-up of manufacturing, finance and other modern services, it will steadily advance the reform of the exchange rate formation mechanism and the convertibility of capital accounts, further reduce the overall tariff level, improve the legal system of opening-up, and make greater efforts to protect intellectual property rights.

China's new round of financial opening-up actually began last year. On April 10, 2018, President Xi Jinping announced at the Bo'ao Forum for Asia that the country's financial sector would be opened up as early as possible. Soon afterwards, Yi Gang, governor of China's central bank, announced specific measures and the timetable for opening up the financial sector to the outside world. Since April 2018, measures to open China's financial sector have been implemented at a faster pace, including easing restrictions on the proportion of equity stakes in the banks, securities and insurance companies, and issuing a shorter negative list for foreign investment.