Spotlight: High-level China-Germany financial dialogue maps cooperation ahead

China and Germany conducted their first high-level financial dialogue here on Tuesday and agreed to strengthen macro-economic policy coordination, hold policy dialogue and promote pragmatic cooperation in fiscal and financial areas.

China's Vice Finance Minister Shi Yaobin told Xinhua that the fruitful results of the First China-Germany High Level Financial Dialogue, which lasted one day, show new highlights of fiscal and financial cooperation as well as future cooperation between the two countries.

Shi, a member of the Chinese delegation for the meeting, said that the successful conclusion of the dialogue, whose main task was to implement agreements reached by leaders of the two countries, marked a good start of China-Germany exchanges in 2015 and was important for maintaining the momentum of bilateral cooperation.

He said that as the inaugural session of this financial dialogue mechanism, the talks on Tuesday focused on two aspects -- to assess the overall orientation of economic cooperation between the two countries and to develop pragmatic cooperation in areas where interests of both sides meet.

The Chinese official also underlined some of the most noteworthy consensuses reached at the dialogue, including Germany's support for China's goal to add its currency renminbi (RMB) to the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) currency basket based on existing criteria.

Germany will also "actively support China in hosting the G20 summit in 2016," Shi added.

At the dialogue, Germany also announced its intention to join the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as a prospective founding member, which was welcomed by China.

Both sides encouraged each other's banking institutions to set up establishments or develop business operations in their respective markets and planned to hold consultations on bank supervision.

They also supported the establishment and development of an offshore RMB market and a local RMB clearing bank in Frankfurt and welcomed German financial institutions using RMB qualified foreign institutional investors (RQFII) quota to invest in Chinese markets.

Commenting on the high-level financial dialogue, Horst Loechel, professor of economics at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, told Xinhua that strengthening financial cooperation between Germany and China will benefit both countries.

The event marks an important milestone in China-Germany financial cooperation after bilateral endeavor to make Frankfurt a renminbi clearing hub, said Loechel.

The progress in economic and political cooperation between the two countries will help improve the overall atmosphere for bilateral economic cooperation, and thus bring more opportunities for businesses and people of the two countries, he said.

From a strategic point of view, Loechel noted that "the old East-West constellation is becoming outdated, and Europe of course can also have good cooperation with China and Asia in general."

"Europe is redefining its position in the world. This is especially true for Germany which increasingly plays a leading role in Europe thanks to its economic success," he said.

The First China-Germany High Level Financial Dialogue was declared concluded by Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and Deutsche Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann. A high-level delegation of senior officials from each country attended the meeting. Endi