Leading Economist Calls for China to Elevate Fintech Development to Status of National Strategy

One of China’s most prominent economists has called for the country’s fintech development policy to be elevated to the status of a national strategy.

Lian Ping (连平), director of the China Chief Economist Forum (CCEF) and chief economist of Zhixin Fund, said that fintech would play a critical role in the future development of the Chinese economy.

“Fintech development is not only extremely critical to the financial sector, but has emerged as critical in many aspects of national strategy, and it is necessary to elevate it to the height of a national strategy to undertake planning,” said Lian.

“[This] will provide a support and guarantee that China will always be at the industry forefront of this area in future.”

Lian made the remarks on 25 August during a keynote speech for the 3rd Zhanfang Cup 5G Applications Competition held in Chengdu.

“Chinese fintech development is already in a leadership position globally, but at present the advantages of this industry have not been able to ascend into core technological advantages,” Lian said.

In Au­gust 2019 PBOC re­leased its Fin­tech De­vel­op­ment Plan (2019 – 2021) out­lin­ing “guid­ance ide­ol­ogy, ba­sic prin­ci­ples, de­vel­op­ment tar­gets, key mis­sions and guar­an­tee mech­a­nisms” for fin­tech work over the up­com­ing three years.

In June 2020 Li Wei (李伟), head of the Chinese central bank’s fin­tech de­part­ment, said it was cur­rently re­search­ing and draft­ing im­ple­men­ta­tion cases and guid­ance for the “Fin­tech De­vel­op­ment Plan 

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