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On March 22, 2016, Pan Gongsheng, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China and administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, met with Ray Dalio, chairman of Bridgewater Associates in Beijing. Both sides exchanged ideas on issues such as conditions of the global economy and financial markets, China's economic development and the balance of payments. 2016-08-30/en/2016/0830/1202.html
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On the morning of August 30, 2016, Pan Gongsheng, Administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), met with a delegation led by Leo Melamed, Chairman Emeritus at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group). The two sides exchanged ideas on topics of interest such as enhancing financial infrastructure construction and deepening cooperation. 2016-11-08/en/2016/1108/1215.html
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The national foreign exchange administration work conference was held in Beijing recently. Following the gist of the 18th CPC National Congress, the third, fourth and fifth plenums of the 18th CPC Central Committee and the Central Economic Work Conference, the meeting reviewed foreign exchange administration in 2015, analyzed the current economic, financial and BOP situations and made plans for foreign exchange administration for 2016. Pan Gongsheng, Deputy Governor the People's Bank of China and Secretary of the CPC Leading Group of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), delivered a work report, and deputy administrators, chief accountants, heads of the SAFE branches (foreign exchange administration departments) and departments of the SAFE attended the meeting. The meeting pointed out that, under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council and the guidance of the CPC Committee of the People's Bank of China, foreign exchange authorities, following the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, focused on making breakthroughs in the reform, accelerating administration streamlining and power delegation and the "five shifts" in foreign exchange administration, and stressing risk prevention and control in 2015, thereby successfully completing the tasks of the year. The upgraded version of the reform of centralized operation and management of foreign exchange funds of MNCs has achieved initial success, the pilot program of the cross-border foreign exchange payment business of payment institutions has been rolled out nationwide, the facilitation of direct investment convertibility has been enhanced, the pilot program of the macro-prudential management of external debt has been carried out steadily, the ongoing and ex-post monitoring management has been improved, the crackdown on foreign exchange irregularities has strong deterring effect, the foreign exchange reserves operation and management system and mechanism have been improved, and therefore, foreign exchange authorities' capabilities to support economic restructuring, transformation and upgrading have been further strengthened. The year 2016 is the first year of the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the meeting stressed. Currently, China's economy and finance run stably, the economic development fundamentals remain optimistic, featuring strong potential and high resilience, the balance of payments is in equilibrium, and foreign exchange reserves are abundant, suggesting China's financial system is robust. In the year, foreign exchange authorities should follow the spirit of the 18th CPC National Congress, and the Third, Fourth and Fifth Plenums of the 18th CPC Central Committee, as well as the plans of the Central Economic Work Conference to serve the new normal of economic development. Following the guidance of the "five shifts" in foreign exchange administration under the principles of seeking progress while maintaining stability and breaking new grounds, foreign exchange authorities should continue to boost administration streamlining and power delegation and law-based administration, promote trade and investment facilitation, push forward the capital account convertibility in an orderly manner, intensify monitoring of the balance of payments, and refine the external debt and capital flows management system under the framework of macro-prudential management to enhance the level of operation and management of foreign exchange reserves and ensure a good start of the 13th Five-Year Plan period. Priorities of foreign exchange administration for 2016 were set at the meeting. First, the reform of the way of foreign exchange monitoring will be pressed ahead with, with ex-ante approval made light of, ongoing and ex-post management improved, and the accuracy and foresight of the monitoring analysis of the balance of payments enhanced to improve the monitoring efficiency. Second, the foreign exchange administration services will be further optimized, with the current account facilitation reform deepened, and foreign exchange administration for cross-border investment and financing enhanced to accelerate the development of the foreign exchange markets. Third, risk prevention and control will be intensified. Foreign exchange authorities are required to guide banks to handle foreign exchange business in line with the three business principles and to strictly perform their responsibilities for authenticity and legitimacy review, crack down on foreign exchange irregularities and maintain the normal order of the foreign exchange markets. Fourth, efforts will be made to ensure sound operation and management of China's foreign exchange reserves, with a focus on coordinating the goals of security, flows and value preservation and growth and further diversifying the use of foreign exchange reserves. Fifth, strict Party conduct will be fully enforced, with the "two responsibilities" performed, and Party building further intensified, with a focus on cleaning up undesirable work styles, upholding integrity, teambuilding and internal management. 2016-03-16/en/2016/0316/1195.html
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On December 31, 2015, governor of the People's Bank of China (PBC), Zhou Xiaochuan, accompanied by Yi Gang and Pan Gongsheng, deputy governors of the PBC, and Yin Yong, assistant governor of the PBC, paid a visit to the SAFE Investment Center to call on officials devoted to administering foreign exchange reserves. On behalf of the PBC's CPC Committee, Zhou Xiaochuan showed his concerns and care for all the officials devoted to administering foreign exchange reserves and confirmed the achievements they made. The year 2015 was the closing year of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, said Zhou Xiaochuan. A review of the past five years shows that profound changes have taken place in China's foreign exchange situation. In face of complex economic and financial environments both at home and abroad, the SAFE Investment Center followed the leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, and conducted the Mass Line campaign and the special educational campaign of "Three Stricts and Three Earnests", adapted to the new normal, and pushed forward the operational and management work, thus ensuring the security, flows, and value maintenance and increase of foreign exchange reserve assets and making significant contributions to the deepening of the national reforms and the achieving of the development goals. Zhou also pointed out that the SAFE Investment Center made risk prevention its top priority in respect of foreign exchange reserves in 2015. To serve the national development strategy, the SAFE Investment Center overcame the challenge of drastic fluctuations in international financial markets and successfully completed its operational and management tasks, taking a new step toward building a world-class asset management institution and playing active roles in supporting the development of the real economy and the national key strategies. Zhou stressed that the year 2016 is the first year when China enters the crucial period to build a moderately well-off society in an all-round way. While implementing the spirit of the 18th CPC National Congress, the Third, Fourth and Fifth Plenary Sessions of the 18th CPC Central Committee and the Central Economic Work Conference, people engaging in the operation and management of foreign exchange reserves are required to seek progress while maintaining stability, make innovations, improve the bottom line thinking, and deliver a good performance in the operation and management of foreign exchange reserves in a strict and down-to-earth manner, so as to better serve the national development and ensure a good start of the 13th Five-Year Plan period. 2016-01-13/en/2016/0113/1183.html
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The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) received and processed 48 NPC motions and CPPCC proposals in 2015, which involved operation and management of foreign exchange reserves, supporting Chinese enterprises to go global, providing financial support for the Belt and Road Initiative and boosting the development of cross-border e-commerce. The SAFE attached great importance to the processing efforts, arranged relevant work, and made great efforts to carry out the related tasks. As a result, the processing of the relevant proposals and motions for 2015 was completed successfully, which can be attributable to the following aspects: first, close attention from the leadership and thoughtful arrangements. With the significance of the proposals and motions processing stressed by the SAFE's Party Leadership Group, the leaders in charge of this processing effort convened a special meeting to make arrangements and raise requirements for the processing. Second, improved systems and standardized processing. A special measure has been developed to make sure the processing is institutionalized and standardized. Third, good coordination and communication to enhance the processing level. The SAFE took various measures to communicate with the delegates and further listened to their opinions and suggestions to ensure the quality of the processing. Fourth, strengthened training and rigorous overseeing. Training was provided for the persons processing the proposals and motions and supervision was improved to make sure every proposal and motion was replied. After the completion of the processing, a wrap-up meeting was held to identify and summarize the experience gained and good practices in this processing effort. The year 2016 was the first year of the Thirteenth Five-year Plan. The SAFE should take the processing effort of 2016 as a touchstone for the implementation of the gist of the 18th CPC National Congress, the Third, Fourth and Fifth Plenums of the 18th CPC Central Committee and the Central Economic Work Conference and continue to improve its work styles, so as to do well in the processing of the proposals and motions from the NPC and CPPCC in 2016. 2016-03-11/en/2016/0311/1189.html
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On February 3, 2016, Pan Gongsheng, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China and administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), met with Andrew Rashbass, chief executive of Euromoney Institutional Investor, and Tony James, president of Blackstone, in Beijing. The current economic conditions in China should be viewed in an all-round and objective way, said Pan Gongsheng. Overall, China's economy is running in a reasonable range. Against the backdrop of the slowing world economy and global trade, and heightened fluctuations in the international financial markets, China maintained a mid-to-high growth rate of 6.9 percent in 2015, which was no easy job as China's economic aggregate had exceeded the basis point of USD 10 trillion and was relatively high compared with other countries. Pan stressed that China's slowing economic growth is attributed to the sluggish global economic growth as well as the Chinese government's active policy adjustment, and will be conducive to China's achievement of more sustainable and higher quality growth and to global economic rebalance. Going forward, China will focus on advancing the structural reform, especially the supply-side structural reform, to better balance economic growth, structural adjustment and risk prevention to achieve sustainable and stable economic development and make great contributions to global economic growth and rebalance. According to Pan, China's balance of payments stays stable, the cross-border capital flow risk is within control, and the RMB exchange rate remains stable against a basket of currencies, indicating there is no ground for sustainable depreciation of the RMB. While vigorously promoting trade and investment facilitation, China focuses on risk prevention, stressing the requirement of reviewing the authenticity and the level of compliance and cracking down on foreign exchange violations, and will not resort to capital controls as it did before. They also exchanged ideas on the current global economic and financial conditions. 2016-03-14/en/2016/0314/1190.html
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To support the implementation of the Measures for the Declaration of Balance of Payments Statistics, and further improve the data quality and efficiency of trade credit survey, the SAFE has recently released the Circular on the Issuance of the Trade Credit Survey System (Huifa No.1 [2016], the “Circular”) to amend the trade credit survey system. The Circular strikes a balance between improvement of statistical data quality and reduction of reporting burden, with the amendment as follows: 1. Simplifying survey indicators. Corporate credit and bank credit, and short and long terms will no longer be differentiated. The statistical and reporting methods and dimensions will be basically consistent with the Accounting System for Business Enterprises (ASBE). 2. Improving the timeliness of surveys. Surveys will be conducted on a monthly rather than quarterly basis, and both monthly and annual surveys will be conducted, but on different companies. Data will be reported on a monthly and annual basis respectively. 3. Focusing on key enterprises. Enterprises above designated size will be the targets of surveys. The total number of companies to be surveyed will be consistent with the number in the past surveys, but most enterprises will participate in the annual survey and limited ones in monthly surveys. The Circular will come into force on August 1, 2016. 2016-02-14/en/2016/0214/1188.html
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On March 22, 2016, Pan Gongsheng, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China and administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), met with Leo Melamed, lifelong chairman emeritus of CME Group in Beijing. Yang Guozhong, deputy administrator of the SAFE, was present at the meeting. Both sides exchanged ideas on issues such as macroeconomic conditions in the US and China, China's balance of payments and the prospects for cooperation between the US and China in foreign exchange markets. 2016-08-30/en/2016/0830/1203.html
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On February 18, 2016, Pan Gongsheng, Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China and Administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), met with Colm Kelleher, President at Morgan Stanley, in Beijing. The two sides exchanged ideas on various issues, such as the world economy, China's economy, recent fluctuations in the global financial markets and monetary policies of major economies. 2016-03-16/en/2016/0316/1197.html
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On February 28, 2016, Pan Gongsheng, Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China and Administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), met with Nathan Sheets, Under Secretary of the US Department of the Treasury, in Beijing. The two sides exchanged ideas on various issues, such as macroeconomic conditions, capital flows, and monetary policies in China and the US. 2016-03-16/en/2016/0316/1196.html