On March 23, Zhu Hexin, Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China (PBC) and Administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), attended the China Development Forum 2026 Annual Meeting and delivered a keynote speech themed "China's Economy and Foreign Exchange Management: Advancing Toward Higher-Standard Opening-Up".

Zhu Hexin noted that the global economic landscape is undergoing profound adjustments. In his congratulatory letter to this forum in 2023, President Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out that "momentous changes of a like not seen in a century are accelerating across the world, regional conflicts and disturbances are frequent, and the global economic recovery is sluggish. The facilitation of global economic recovery requires consensus and cooperation." Revisiting this important statement by President Xi Jinping, we are even more impressed by its practical relevance and far-reaching insight. Opening-up brings prosperity, cooperation makes strength, and stability enables progress. China's pursuit of high-standard opening-up not only enhances its own development momentum and resilience, but also injects greater stability and certainty into the global economy.

Zhu Hexin pointed out that 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of China's achievement of current account convertibility, a significant step in China's foreign exchange sector opening-up and a milestone in its overall opening-up to the outside world. In 1996, China accepted Article VIII of the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), realizing the convertibility of the RMB under the current account, and effectively aligning its foreign exchange management model with international rules and the multilateral payment system. Since then, China has adhered to a prudent and orderly approach, advancing capital account convertibility step by step, and achieving the organic unity of opening-up, reform, development, and security.

Zhu Hexin emphasized that China's opening-up is continuously advancing to a higher level, characterized by three aspects: broader coverage, stronger momentum, and better structure.

First, the scope of opening-up is continuously expanding, shifting from focusing mainly on trade in goods to broader international economic and trade cooperation. China's opening-up in the service sector has been continuously expanded, making trade in services a new engine for the development of foreign trade. On the basis of trade in goods and services, China and countries around the world also hold assets in each other and share development gains, forming more diversified and robust economic and trade ties.

Second, the momentum of opening-up is continuously strengthening, shifting from being driven by policy dividends to being jointly built and shared by all types of entities for mutual benefit and win-win results. All types of business entities are accelerating their layout by leveraging both domestic and international markets and resources, becoming the driving force for high-standard opening-up. Private enterprises remain China's largest foreign trade business entity, while foreign-funded enterprises share China's manufacturing competitive advantages, providing strong support for their global production and sales networks. China's trade-related capital inflows are mainly deployed independently by enterprises, banks, and other entities through forms such as outward direct investment and portfolio investment, forming a new pattern of diversified holdings and global allocation. China is an important destination for global multinational corporations to carry out overseas investment layouts, and the return on foreign direct investment in China has consistently ranked among the top in major economies. In recent years, foreign public funds, private equity institutions, sovereign wealth funds, and other entities have increased their presence in China, with a growing willingness to allocate RMB-denominated assets.

Third, the structure of opening-up is continuously optimized, shifting from scale growth to more coordinated development of import and export trade and two-way investment cooperation. China is accelerating the building of a new development pattern, and its opening-up pays more attention to coordinating supply and demand, as well as "bringing in" and "going global." China has always adhered to expanding domestic demand as its strategic cornerstone, and in recent years has taken the initiative to expand imports to promote balanced development of imports and exports. China is actively expanding the space for two-way investment cooperation, and remains a fertile ground for foreign-funded enterprises to invest and develop. Guided by high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, China's outward investment has maintained sound, stable, and orderly development.

Zhu Hexin expressed that, looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the SAFE will better balance development and security, further advance high-level institutional opening-up in the foreign exchange sector, and better serve the creation of a new landscape of win-win cooperation. First, adhere to an opening-up mindset to enhance the synergy and alignment between capital account opening and national economic and financial reform and development, as well as the internationalization of the RMB. For already opened items, efforts will be made to promote clearer management frameworks, more unified rules, more convenient procedures, and more stable expectations. For sectors with conditions, the pace and intensity of opening-up will be properly managed to better serve the needs of scientific and technological innovation, the real economy, and long-term capital allocation. Second, adhere to a service-oriented mindset to make genuine and compliant foreign exchange receipts and payments more convenient and efficient. Following the principle of "the more trustworthy, the more convenient, the compliant go first," efforts will be continuously made to improve the efficiency of enterprises' trade-related foreign exchange receipts and payments, the level of cross-border investment and financing facilitation, and banks' foreign exchange business capabilities. Third, adhere to a security mindset to hold the bottom line and enhance resilience amid opening-up. Efforts will be made to further improve institutional arrangements such as statistical monitoring, macroprudential management, interim and ex-post regulation, expectation guidance, and policy evaluation, actively participate in international financial governance, and enhance regulatory capacity and risk prevention and control capabilities under opening-up conditions.