Yi Gang (易纲), the newly appointed head of the Chinese central bank, has indicated that he will uphold the emphasis on reform and opening maintained by his predecessor Zhou Xiaochuan.
On 19 March the National People’s Congress voted to appoint Yi Gang the new governor of the People’s Bank of China, replacing incumbent head Zhou Xiaochuan following a tenure of more than 15 years.
Following his appointment at the Great Hall of the People, Yi told reporters from Securities Journal that his main missions would be “the effective implementation of stable monetary policy, and the simultaneous promotion of financial reform and opening, as well as the maintenance of financial stability.”
Yi said that he would publicly unveil a series of financial sector reform and opening policies and measures at the Bo’ao Forum in Hainan.
59 year-old Yi Gang is the first head of PBOC to have received an education abroad, studying at Beijing University and Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, before obtaining a PhD in economics at the University of Illinois.
He subsequently served as an Associated Professor with tenure at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IPUI) before becoming a member of faculty at Beijing University as professor and vice head of the Center for Economics Research.
Yi joined PBOC in 1997, and held the position of President of the Operations Office from September 2006 to October 2007, before being appointed as Deputy Governor in 2007.
He also served as director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange from 2009 until January 12 2016.