BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Belt and Road Financial Cooperation International Forum 2020, jointly organized by Asian Financial Cooperation Association (AFCA), PwC and Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) located in Kazakhstan, was convened in Beijing on Monday.
The forum, which attracted participants from more than 10 countries and regions worldwide, initiated wide-ranging discussions centered upon financial cooperation in Asia and under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Pang Kuixia, deputy secretary general of the AFCA, introduced in the opening remarks that AFCA, with its foothold in Asia, follows the philosophy of openness and inclusiveness and has 100-plus member institutions in more than 30 countries and regions.
Since its establishment in 2017, AFCA has established the Asian Financial Think Tank and specialized committees on industry finance, green finance, inclusive finance and fintech to press ahead with related cooperation and experience sharing.
In May 2019, AFCA set up the Belt and Road Financial Cooperation Committee, dedicated to crafting a platform for Belt and Road financial business communication and cooperation and joint governance as well.
Pang noted that investment and financing remain always the hardest issue in constructing the Belt and Road. Under such circumstances, AFCA hopes to further promote communication between member institutions and with other related institutions. By leveraging its advantages in pooling cross-industry and cross-region resources, AFCA highlighted building the Belt and Road investment and financing ecological system to foster innovative, inclusive, sustainable and high quality development of the Belt and Road.
Mei Xinyu, researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, believed that the stable development of global economy needs Asian financial cooperation.
Nowadays, if the world economic engines are changing, it is more and more explicitly reflected in the increasing reliance of world economy on growth of the Asian economy. In face of the shocks brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Asian economy proved much more resilient than other countries and regions in the world, according to Mei.
According to forecasts of IMF, emerging and developing economies may see their overall economic growth down by 3.3 percent in 2020 while the global economic growth may recess by 4.4 percent year on year.
Timur Malikov, head of the representative office to China of AIFC, said that international financial centers are getting involved in the BRI mainly via the following areas, namely investment facilitation, trade promotion, transport connectivity, financial technologies and knowledge sharing. They are natural hubs for businesses operating along the Belt and Road that look for confidence in regulations, legal protection and trade finance products.
AIFC is working on development of the Renminbi (RMB) offshore market, which will expand the investor base for Kazakhstan's business ecosystem by diversifying the investment and financial solutions in RMB and the scale of bilateral trade and investments with China, especially when Chinese economic agents prefer to make transitions in RMB, Timur Malikov told. (Contributed by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)
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