On October 24, Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), presided over a meeting of the PBOC Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to convey and study General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee and the guidelines of the session. The meeting also discussed measures for implementing these guidelines in line with the requirements set forth for major financial institutions at the session. Members of the CPC PBOC Committee attended the meeting.

It was held at the meeting that since the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, the CPC Central Committee has responded with composure and decisiveness at critical junctures in China’s economic performance. It has introduced a series of new policies that have effectively stabilized employment, businesses, the market, and expectations, leading to significant new achievements in the undertakings of the Party and the country. In accordance with the arrangements of the CPC Central Committee, the PBOC has rolled out a package of monetary policy measures, strengthened counter-cyclical adjustments, maintained ample liquidity, and firmly supported the stable performance of China’s financial markets, including the stock, bond, and foreign exchange markets, thereby fostering a sound monetary and financial environment for stable economic growth.

It was noted at the meeting that over the past five years, despite a complex and challenging international landscape and the arduous domestic tasks of pressing ahead with reform and development while ensuring stability, China, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, has maintained strategic resolve and remained committed to high-quality economic development. With a focus on building a new development paradigm, the country has embarked on a path of steady growth that stands in sharp contrast to other major economies, achieving historic accomplishments across multiple fronts and making solid progress toward Chinese modernization.

It was also held at the meeting that the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, centered on the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects, has made top-level designs and strategic plans for development over the next five years. It marks another overall arrangement and call to action for building momentum and continuously advancing Chinese modernization. In his important speech at the session, General Secretary Xi Jinping elaborated on the significance, guiding principles, and major objectives of formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan, and systematically outlined landmark strategic tasks and innovative measures, providing fundamental guidance and a clear roadmap for work during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The session also deliberated over and adopted the Recommendations of the Central Committee of the CPC for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, which fully embodies Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and serves as a founding document guiding China’s economic and social development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

It was stressed at the meeting that financial work constitutes an integral part of the undertakings of the Party and the country. Over the past five years, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee, China has deepened reform of its financial system across the board, further modernized its financial governance system and capacity, significantly improved the quality and efficiency of financial services for the real economy, and greatly enhanced the overall strength and global competitiveness of its financial sector. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee made strategic arrangements to accelerate efforts to boost China’s strength in finance. The PBOC will fully and faithfully implement the guidelines of Xi Jinping’s important speech and the session. It will adopt a diligent, pragmatic, and professional approach to accelerating improvements to the central banking system and advancing the implementation of key tasks.

First, the PBOC will uphold the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee over the financial work and deepen comprehensive and rigorous Party self-governance. It will develop systematic work plans and key tasks based on a thorough understanding of the guidelines of the session and ensure consistent implementation and regular evaluation. The PBOC will maintain regular and long-term efforts to address issues identified in central inspections and audits and foster a clean and upright political environment.

Second, the PBOC will build a scientific and sound monetary policy system. It will work to strike a balance between short-term and long-term goals, support for the real economy and the soundness of the financial system itself, as well as internal and external equilibria. Based on economic and financial conditions, it will carefully manage the intensity, timing, and pace of monetary policy to maximize the effectiveness of various policy tools, thereby fostering a favorable monetary and financial environment for stable economic growth and high-quality development. Furthermore, the PBOC will further refine the monetary policy framework, strengthen policy implementation and transmission, advance the reform of the RMB exchange rate formation mechanism, and keep the RMB exchange rate basically stable at an adaptive and equilibrium level.

Third, the PBOC will improve the macro-prudential management system and the mechanism for preventing and resolving systemic financial risks. It will strengthen the monitoring, assessment, and early warning of systemic risks from macro, counter-cyclical, and contagion-proof perspectives, while expanding the scope of macro-prudential management. It will further enhance its role in conducting macro-prudential management and safeguarding financial stability to ensure the smooth operation of the stock, bond, and foreign exchange markets. In collaboration with relevant departments, the PBOC will continue to support risk mitigation for small and medium-sized local financial institutions, local financing platforms, and the real estate market. It will strictly enforce financial, economic, and market disciplines and regulatory rules to guard against moral hazards. Efforts will also be made to improve institutional arrangements that safeguard financial stability and accelerate the formulation of financial laws.

Fourth, the PBOC will continue to deepen the supply-side structural reform of the financial sector. It will make great efforts in the areas of technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, old-age finance, and digital finance to ensure that financial services are better aligned with the needs of the real economy and provide stronger support for key areas and weak links in economic development. The PBOC will improve the policy framework for technology finance to strengthen the capacity, intensity, and effectiveness of financial support for technological innovation. It will promote a more balanced structure, scale, and regional distribution among financial institutions, and work to build a well-regulated, transparent, open, dynamic, and resilient financial market system, supported by a secure and efficient financial infrastructure system. It will also steadily move ahead with e-CNY research and application,

Fifth, the PBOC will steadily advance high-standard financial opening-up while resolutely safeguarding national financial security. It will advance RMB internationalization, expand its use in trade settlements, deepen the two-way opening-up of financial markets in an orderly manner, and promote the development of offshore RMB markets. The PBOC will further facilitate trade, investment, and financing, and advance the development of Shanghai and Hong Kong as international financial centers. It will continue to develop an independent, controllable, multi-channel, and widely accessible cross-border RMB payment system. In addition, the PBOC will actively implement the Global Governance Initiative, engage in pragmatic financial exchanges with foreign countries as well as bilateral and multilateral monetary and financial cooperation, and participate in and promote reforms in global financial governance.

It was required at the meeting that the PBOC system will organize diverse study activities in line with the arrangements made by the CPC Central Committee to align its thoughts and actions with the guidelines of the session, thereby advancing the high-quality development of the financial sector and making greater contributions to boosting China’s strength and achieving national rejuvenation.