Greetings from Beijing!
China's financial landscape is undergoing significant changes, with the country's strategic blueprint for the future being enshrined at the 2022 Party Congress addressed by President Xi Jinping. This transformation was the focus of the annual financial services conference, Sibos, which was held in Beijing for the first time, marking a significant milestone.
The China National Convention Centre, located in the Chaoyang district, served as the venue for the conference. The area is well-known for its iconic buildings, such as the Beijing National Stadium and Beijing Aquatics Centre, both constructed for the 2008 Olympics.
One of the key topics discussed at the conference was the digitisation of trade. Avanee Gokhale, Global Head of Trade Strategy at Swift, highlighted the momentum gained in the past few years towards digitising trade, but emphasised the need for industry collaboration to ensure a frictionless digital economy, addressing the issue of digital islands.
Pamela Mar, Managing Director of the ICC Digital Standards Initiative, believed that 2024 has been a turning point, with legal frameworks coming into place and the release of the first trade standards framework that consolidates all the disparate elements of the supply chain into one cohesive model.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Lei Lu spoke about China opening its financial sector and interlinking with the rest of the world. He also underlined the solid partnership between Swift and CIPS, China's Crossborder Interbank Payment System. The PBOC has been working with Swift to facilitate cross-border payments via its messaging service.
Joon Kim, Global Head of Trade Finance at BNY, discussed how OCR and GenAI technologies can help convert unstructured data into structured data, automating various processes and enhancing the client experience.
Kuo Zhang, President of Alibaba.com, explained how the platform supports micro and small medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) when they trade across borders, helping them navigate the complexities of freight forwarding, customs controls, FX, and other aspects of international trade. Alibaba.com, with 20 million orders supported by the platform each year, plays a crucial role in helping small companies become cross-border entrepreneurs.
The conference also addressed the challenges facing corporates, with corporate priorities for the future including ensuring and protecting liquidity, making sure their supply chains are resilient up and down, connecting to new markets and new corridors as part of that resilience strategy, and ensuring they have access to a broad suite of distribution partners to increase their capacity and scale.
The PBOC has been removing foreign ownership restrictions on banking securities and insurance, attracting more than 110 foreign financial institutions to work in China. As a result, China, the world's second-largest economy by GDP since 2010, has seen an economic uptick, with government stimulus playing a key role. In September 2024, China's fiscal spending surged by 12.6% year-on-year.
The main foreign partner bank at the Sibos Conference 2024 in Beijing was Deutsche Bank. An estimated 7,000 delegates attended the conference in person, with a further 3,000 tuning in remotely.
The Standard Chartered CEO, Bill Winters, stated that trade has lifted two billion people out of poverty and is a good thing for humanity, but it has left important pockets behind and is changing its nature.
In conclusion, the Sibos conference in Beijing provided a platform for discussions on the future of China's financial sector, with a focus on digitisation, opening up the financial sector, and interlinking with the rest of the world. The conference also addressed the challenges facing corporates and the role of technology in supporting MSMEs in international trade. As China continues to grow and evolve, these discussions will undoubtedly play a crucial role in shaping its financial future.
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