Dishui Lake Emerging Finance Conference Focuses on Financial Innovation and Openness

SHANGHAI, Dec. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — On December 8, the Dishui Lake Emerging Finance Conference, themed Financial Innovation and Openness in China’s New March to Modernization, took place at the permanent venue for the World Laureates Forum, located on the shore of Dishui Lake in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Lin-gang Special Area. The event highlighted the area’s strengths in artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, intelligent electric vehicles, high-end equipment manufacturing, and other cutting-edge sci-tech industries, and invited leaders from government and financial regulatory authorities, as well as industry experts and leaders. The event reinforces the area’s tagline “China’s Dishui Lake – World’s Financial Bay”, with discussions on finance, technology and openness.

The conference included an opening ceremony, a keynote speech, and three symposia. The symposia focused respectively on financial technology, technology finance, and cross-border finance, and were led by world-renowned experts in the relevant fields, who discussed cutting-edge issues related to and perspectives on the development of new and emerging financial models. Thomas J. Sargent, 2011 Nobel Laureate in Economics, Michael Descheneaux, President of Silicon Valley Bank, Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, Division Chief in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Whitfield Diffie, Turing Award winner and one of the pioneers of public key cryptography, and Bénédicte Nolens, head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub Centre Hong Kong, were among the keynote speakers.

Promoting financial openness and innovative development in every respect is an important strategic move towards the goal of transforming the new area into a special economic functional zone with international influence and competitiveness. To this end, new and emerging financial models will provide a powerful solution for the zone’s efforts in seeking new areas for industrial growth and creating a new ecosystem for financial services.

Previously, China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Lin-gang Special Area had proposed what it has referred to as the “1+4” primary goals in its Action Plan for Accelerating the Development of the Emerging Financial Industry.

The “1” represents an overall goal to transform Dishui Lake Financial Bay into:

  • a new locale for emerging financial clusters;
  • a prototype for the development of new financial technologies;
  • a pilot project for complying with international regulations; and
  • a sought-after location for financial talent from both home and abroad by 2025.

The “4” refers to:

  • fostering an emerging yet mature financial ecosystem capable of serving multiple business formats; persuading at least 800 financial and investment institutions to establish operations there;
  • building a nation-leading financial and sci-tech center housing the operations of three to five companies with international reputation and influence, along with a number of single champions in niche areas.
  • Meanwhile, major progress is already being made in a pilot project focused on financial reform and opening-up, which will lead to the establishment of a financial service system with international high standards, and an anticipated growth rate of both direct and cross-border finance exceeding 30%.
  • The key driver of the overall project is to be the financial industry, with both traditional and emerging finance to be developed in tandem, with the expectation of the added value of the financial industry increasing by more than 25% annually.

At present, with China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Lin-gang Special Area already the home of several financial infrastructures serving the whole of China including Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange (SHPGX), in tandem with a number of landmark cross-border financial service institutions including Amundi BOC Wealth Management, HSBC Financial Technology and BOCOM Financial Technology, the synergy of offshore finance, technology finance and other new business formats is already being felt. The financial center of the future is taking shape, with Dishui Lake Financial Bay well on its way to becoming a world-class financial hub at the forefront of financial opening, promoting value innovation and paving the way for the next generation of new and emerging industries.