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Boao Forum for Asia Financial Cooperation Conference held in London

Xinhua, November 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Financial Cooperation Conference was held in London on Monday, gathering more than 400 government officials, businessmen and academics from 22 Asian and European countries and regions.

It is the first international forum on financial cooperation between Asia and Europe following Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Britain, during which China and Britain have reached consensus and expressed interest in cooperation on a broad range of areas.

Zeng Peiyan, former Vice Premier of China and Vice Chairman of the BFA, delivered a keynote speech at the opening plenary, emphasizing that increasing Asian-European financial cooperation will have strategic significance in preventing the world economy from falling into a low-growth trap and making the prosperity of the two continents sustainable.

Zeng said in his speech that Asia and Europe are complementary in the international financial system and connectivity between the two continents will be an inevitable trend.

Currently, the financial market in Asia needs to learn from advanced economies which are awash with capital, while the financial services sector in Europe is also eager to tap overseas markets and needs external liquidity to address its debt crisis, said Zeng.

In this sense, mutually beneficial and win-win financial cooperation between Asia and Europe have promises of enormous potential, Zeng stressed.

Harriett Baldwin, economic secretary to the Treasury, said: "It is my pleasure to offer my efforts on the future for Asia and Europe financial cooperation. I very strongly believe that we can only reach our full potential as a nation when we go strong relationships with our international partners in the modern world."

Baldwin said: "Our ever deeper relationship with china has been highlighted. The relations between our two countries have been momentous in the last 18 months in particular. Indeed we have seen UK and china financial cooperation has been strengthened."

Sir Suma Chakrabarti, the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), said that China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative is "very important to us". Infrastructure is going to be an important part of the cooperation.

In June, Chakrabarti called for strong cooperation between his and other existing multilateral development banks and the newly created Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Chakrabarti revealed that the EBRD was already in 'intense and wide-ranging' dialogue with the AIIB.

The Financial Cooperation Conference is hosted from November 8 to November 10. The conference is a post-crisis serial conference organized by the BFA that aims to facilitate regional and inter-regional financial cooperation.

It has been held multiple times around the world. The London conference, themed around Asia-Europe financial cooperation, has attracted wide attention and participation.

Former Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, former Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former British chief minister Peter Mandelson and other officials, as well as Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank governor-elect Jin Liqun, attended the conference. Endit