by ZHANG Xiaoyun

At a high-level roundtable during the 2025 Lujiazui Forum, financial leaders called for deeper structural reforms and ecosystem-building to support the rise of new quality productive forces—a term increasingly used to describe China's next-generation, innovation-driven economy.

CAI Xiliang, chairman of China Life Insurance, said the insurer is leveraging its full financial platform—insurance, investment, and banking—to deliver lifecycle financing to technology firms. He highlighted a breakthrough model using S-fund structures to relay early-stage investment from government-backed funds to insurance capital at a later stage, balancing risk while helping policy funds "make room for the next big bet."

TAN Jiong, chairman and president of China Development Bank, said the policy bank had issued over 2 trillion yuan in strategic emerging industry loans since 2021. Going forward, it will "add three accelerations": more targeted allocation of resources, stronger coordination with ministries and enterprises, and faster rollout of new policy-backed financing tools to serve new quality productive forces.

WANG Chunying, president of the Export-Import Bank of China, said the bank is supporting new quality productive forces by backing high-tech exporters, supply chain resilience, and cross-border R&D. She emphasized expanding financing for digital trade infrastructure, helping Chinese firms globalize their innovation, and deepening partnerships with multilateral institutions.

ZHANG Hui, president of Bank of China, stressed the need to build a fully integrated technology finance ecosystem. He argued this requires shifting from product-centric to needs-centric services, bringing in diverse players across equity, banking, insurance, and guarantees. He also called for clearer divisions of responsibility across regulators, markets, and policymakers to reduce resource mismatch and enable financing that matches the needs of new quality productive forces.

Mary HUEN, CEO of Standard Chartered Hong Kong, said deeper collaboration between Shanghai and Hong Kong—"twin engines" of China's financial system—can provide tech companies with global expansion channels. She pointed to growing demand for RMB-denominated instruments, increased South-South trade, and digitized assets as trends reshaping financial flows and supporting new quality productive forces.

Saeb EIGNER, former chairman of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, argued that successful finance hubs adapt to local conditions. He urged Shanghai to draw in global players—especially private equity and venture capital firms—with deep expertise in funding high-tech and fintech innovation that powers new quality productive forces.

WANG Yongxiang, professor at Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, called for increasing China's share of equity financing to better match the risk profile of innovation. He said relying too heavily on bank lending misaligns risk and reward, while equity allows financial institutions to share in the upside of high-growth firms. He also stressed the need for stronger quality oversight of listed companies to protect investor confidence and sustainably nurture new quality productive forces.