On the morning of February 25, the seminar titled “Enhancing the Service Capacity of Shanghai as an International Financial Center in Line with the ‘15^th Five-Year Plan’ and Construction of Shanghai into an International Financial Center”took place at Shanghai Party Institute of CPC (SPI). ZENGJun, Executive Vice President of SPI, and YANGYimin, Party Secretary and First Vice President of the Shanghai College of International Finance (SCIF), attended the seminar and delivered speeches.

In his speech, ZENGJun stated that expediting the efforts to build China into a financial powerhouse is a strategic choice made by the Party Central Committee based on the bigpicture of the country’s modernization drive. As part of the journey to fully build a modern socialist China, it is essential to build Shanghai into a robust international financial center by keeping to the goal of building the country into a financial powerhouse, and make further progress in building a great country and advancing national rejuvenation through high-quality financial development. As the main channel and front for official education and training, SPIbears a responsibility and enjoysunique advantages in improvingofficials’financial competencies and capabilities, and solidifying the sense of political identity and belonging with the nation among financial talent. It is imperative to further align with the systematic advancement of a series of task and deployments to facilitate the building of Shanghai as an international financial center, and continuously focus on enhancing the global perspective, strategic thinking, and professional capabilities of officials.

YANGYimin delivered a speech titled “Leveraging the Characteristics and Advantages of the Bank of China in Global Operation to Enhance the Service Capacity of Shanghai as an International Financial Center,”elaborating on several aspects such asfocusing on the construction level ofShanghai as an international financial center, exerting efforts on the original aspiration of the Bank of China, and boosting the service capacity of Shanghai as an international financial center. He underscored that SCIF, as the Shanghai branch of Bank of China Party School and a training base for finance professionals, join hands with SPI to vigorously implement the original aspiration and mission of Party schools, cooperate on relevant research and the development of a disciplinary curriculum system, step up training of financial talentwith a global perspective, and jointly serve the development of the city’s financial talent pool.

SHILiya, a specially invited expert of the think tank of Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, gave a keynote speech. With the title “Internationalization of the Renminbi and the Construction of the Shanghai International Financial Center: Shanghai’s Role in Building a Strong Financial Nation,” she expounded on the intrinsic logic between the Shanghai’s role as an international financial center and the internationalization of the Renminbi. She asserted that to reinforce the competitiveness and influence of the city as an international financial center, it is essential to substantiallyboost its degree of internationalization. She stressed the importance of balancing financial openness with security and establishing a currency community for the Renminbi by developing a partnership circle for the city as an international financial center.

During the thematic discussion, six participants, including WANGYuan, Secretary-General of AliResearch; WANG Jingyi, Assistant Professor at the School of Finance, Central University of Finance and Economics; XINYaoyao, Associate Professor at the Department of Economicsof SPI; and representatives from financial institutions in Shanghai, voiced their opinions on topics such as boosting the service capacity of the city as an international financial center in line with the goal of building the country into a financial powerhouse, reinforcing the competitiveness and influence of the city as an international financial center, and bringing into play the empowering role of finance by focusing on thedevelopment of“technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance.”

The seminar was jointly organized by SPI and SCIF. Representatives and experts from some financial institutions, enterprises, colleges and universities, and party schools of CPC district committees, relevant personnel from the Department of Economics and Division of Scientific Research Management of SPI, as well as representatives from relevant media outlets attended the meeting.