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The 16th Annual Conference of the International Finance Forum (IFF) was successfully held in Guangzhou, China, from November 22 to 24, 2019. The annual conference focused on the theme of "Global Stability: New Transition, New Development". Comprehensive and in-depth discussions were carried out to explore pragmatic approaches for financial innovation and stable development. During the three-day forum, different scopes were covered with honorable guests present; various IFF summits, policy dialogues and roundtables led to substantial results. Participants believed that the way to grasp the "changes" and "invariants" in global economic and financial trends, and the way to improve and develop the global economic, trade as well as financial order are vital to global economic and financial development.

On the morning of November 24th, a cross-strait financial roundtable conference titled "Openness, Interoperability and Integration" was officially held.  It focused on the cross-strait inclusive financial development (including SME financing), pension finance and green finance. The participating experts, officials and institutional representatives delivered insightful speeches, by not only introducing the experience of inclusive financial development of their institutions from a macro perspective, but also discussing the effective measures to promote the development of pension finance and green finance in detailed manner.

Regarding pension finance, Wenhui Chen, vice chairman of IFF and deputy director of the National Council for Social Security Fund, pointed out: "China is now in a stage of ‘getting old before getting rich’, regarding the size of the pension and the structure of the reserve, the current pension asset management is unreasonable and ill-defined; the allocation of national social security fund asset as well as pension investment management need to strengthen their ability for risk prevention”. Xiannong Gui, chairman of Taiwan Insurance Institute, also proposed the concept of a "risk-protection pyramid", which he believes pension finance planning is a top priority at present, and it is necessary to fill the protection gap of senior life through personal financial management and commercial insurance.

In terms of green finance, Shi Gang, chairman of Fubon Securities, and Yitong Qiu, director of Guangzhou Local Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau, also shared how they explored green finance in their financial reform and innovation work, and advocated the insurance industry to invest in green bonds. They also encouraged to actively promote cross-strait cooperation in green energy through projects like wind power.

Mr. Duoguang Bei, president of the Chinese Academy of Financial Inclusion(CAFI), shared his views and suggestions on the development of inclusive finance. He pointed out that after 40 years of development, finance in China has entered the third phase which characterizes with more inclusive and healthy financial system. In this phase, on the one hand, the government promotes the development of inclusive finance from top to bottom; and the major banks, city commercial banks, and rural commercial banks carry out inclusive financial services in comprehensive way; on the other hand, digital finance institutions are also engaged in the business, playing the role of catfish, providing financial services to customers that many traditional banks have failed to cover.

"We would like to put extra emphasis on the field of digital inclusive finance, which is the most prominent feature of China's inclusive financial development and has achieved great success. Although China's digital inclusive finance is still in its infancy, digital payments have matured and even made abroad. China is now moving to the second phase of digital inclusive finance, which is digital credit, especially micro-credit leveraging digital technology. Many whitelisted customers can apply for loans directly from banks or institutions via mobile phones, and the request can be answered within a short period. Digital wealth management marks the third stage, which will lead to a new pattern of China's digital inclusive finance. "

To close his speech, President Bei expressed his hope to learn more about Taiwan's experience in using financial power to support rural development, and looked forward to applying it in China's rural revitalization strategy.

Runfeng Zhu, Chairman of Kaohsiung Bank and former Managing Director of China International Capital Corporation, and Tingyu Zhan, Vice Chairman of China Trust Commercial Bank Co., Ltd. also attended the roundtable.

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