China has made substantial contributions to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program, said Sergio Orlandi, construction project head of the ITER Organization.
The ITER program is one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world today.
Through it, multiple nations are collaborating to build the world's largest tokamak -- a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy.
Orlandi said the program is making smooth progress thanks to China's contribution.
"ITER has made important progress in the last six years, achieving very high top level targets. Because all the plant outside of the tokamak building has been completed. So I can say that the electrical power distribution, the coil power supply with the big contribution coming from China in the building territory as well as the component cooling water system have been completed, commissioned and the majority of them are in operation," he said in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN).
Built in southern France by the seven ITER members, China, the EU, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States, the facilities will form the world's largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment device and the largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor.
China officially joined the ITER program in 2006 as its seventh member. According to the agreement, China is responsible for about 9 percent of the project's construction and operation.
Orlandi lauded the work ethic of Chinese engineers, which he has had the opportunity to observe over the past decades.
"I have been working in China since 1988. I have learned a lot. The mentality that I have had from China to be capable to assure quality on time and on cost. And this mentality makes the difference in any project. I've seen the capacity they have. I've seen how they work because for sure if you come in ITER you see building 33 is totally power converters produced by China. They are completed. They are installed," he said.
Head of int'l fusion energy project acclaims China's contribution
The financial authorities of the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Monday announced a series of measures to optimize the mutual access between the mainland and Hong Kong interest rate swap markets, also known as Swap Connect.
These measures, including enriching product types and improving supporting functions, aim to better meet the diversified risk management needs of domestic and foreign investors and reduce participation costs.
The Swap Connect was launched on May 15, 2023, as an effort to implement the national strategy to steadily advance the opening-up of China's financial markets. Since then, the trading and clearing arrangements of the scheme have been operating smoothly and its trading volume has been on the rise with the active participation of mainland and overseas investors.
As of the end of April 2024, 20 mainland dealers and 58 overseas investors had conducted more than 3,600 interest rate swap transactions with an aggregate notional amount of approximately 1.77 trillion yuan (about 244.66 billion U.S. dollars), representing an average daily turnover of 7.6 billion yuan or thereabouts in notional amount.
The average daily turnover calculated on a monthly basis had increased by around three times from approximately 3 billion yuan in the first month after the launch to over 12 billion yuan in April 2024, providing mainland and overseas investors with a convenient and efficient risk management tool to manage their Renminbi asset allocation.
To further promote the coordinated development of financial derivatives markets in the mainland and Hong Kong and shape a new landscape of high-quality opening-up in the realm of finance, the People's Bank of China, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority have resolved to support the further enhancements of Swap Connect, after thoroughly reviewing the operational experiences of the scheme and carefully considering comments and suggestions from mainland and overseas investors.
One of the measures is to enrich the product types. Interest rate swap contracts with payment cycles based on the International Monetary Market (IMM) dates will be accepted for clearing to align with mainstream products traded globally and meet the diverse risk management needs of mainland and overseas investors.
Another effort is to improve the ancillary services. Compression service and the clearing of backdated swap contracts as the associated supporting arrangement will be introduced to facilitate participating institutions to manage the notional amount outstanding, lower capital costs, and foster active trading.
In addition, the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (National Interbank Funding Center), the Shanghai Clearing House, and OTC Clearing Hong Kong Limited will roll out other system enhancements and incentive programs simultaneously to reduce the participation costs of mainland and overseas investors.
For the next step, the mainland and Hong Kong regulators will guide the financial market infrastructure institutions in both markets to extend the business collaboration under Swap Connect in a steady and orderly manner and further enhance the operational arrangements of the scheme, with a view to facilitating the steady opening-up of China's financial markets and strengthening Hong Kong's status as an international financial center.
Mainland, Hong Kong optimize rate swap connect for further opening-up of China’s financial markets
