Experts attending the 2025 Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai held in-depth discussions on how to build a diversified financial service system needed for the development of new quality productive forces, agreeing that the building of the system requires collaborative efforts of multiple parties.
Launched in 2008, the Lujiazui Forum has grown into a major platform for dialogue among policymakers, financial experts and business leaders from around the world. This year's forum, themed "Financial opening-up and cooperation for high-quality development in a changing global economy," ran from Wednesday to Thursday in Shanghai.
Official data show that by the end of the first quarter of this year, the balance of Chinese yuan and foreign currency loans for small and medium-sized science and technology enterprises increased by 24 percent year on year, indicating that financial institutions have kept strengthening support for science and technology enterprises.
At Plenary Session V of the forum themed "Financial Sector Supporting the Development of New Quality Productive Forces," many financial institutions announced that they would focus on supporting cutting-edge areas such as artificial intelligence and digital economy.
"We focus on developing foreign trade to connect with the global market of new quality productive forces, pushing 'Intelligent Manufacturing in China' to go global, and continuing to provide financial support for the development of new quality productive forces. Specifically, our balance of loans for science and technology sector has reached 1.4 trillion yuan (about 194.7 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for over a quarter of all loans issued by our bank," said Wang Chunying, governor of the Import-Export Bank of China.
Several financial institutions stated that they would leverage equity, credit, insurance, and other instruments to deliver comprehensive financial services for technology-based enterprises, fostering stronger momentum in cultivating new quality productive forces.
"As the core driving force for China's high-quality development, new quality productive forces require a more efficient, precise and systematic financial system to strengthen support for them. Through instruments such as equity investment, venture capital and green bonds, financial institutions are capable of providing funding support for start-ups and scientific-technological projects to help them move from laboratories to large-scale commercial applications," said Mary Huen Wai-yi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Hong Kong and Greater China and North Asia of Standard Chartered Bank.
Experts urge joint efforts to build financial service system supporting development of new quality productive forces
