Guangdong's co-op zones to boost financial opening up

China's central bank and four other authorities have released measures to deepen financial reforms and opening up in Qianhai and Hengqin in southern Guangdong Province.

The nation's central bank and banking and insurance, securities, and foreign exchange regulators, as well as the Guangdong provincial government, on Thursday released 30 measures to support Shenzhen's Qianhai in achieving a high-level interconnection with Hong Kong's financial market by 2025.

The measures are aimed at establishing a financial rule system in line with international standards and a world-class financial environment inside the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone by 2035.

Focusing on deepening financial cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, the newly-released measures will help Hong Kong residents to open accounts with mainland banks and beef up credit reporting cooperation, while helping enterprises to conduct credit financing, the central bank's sub-branch in Shenzhen said.

The measures will comprehensively facilitate cross-border trade and investment as well as cross-border Renminbi settlement for new trade models.

Data shows that over 2,000 Hong Kong-funded financial institutions have registered in Qianhai.

The five government authorities also released 30 measures to boost financial cooperation between Zhuhai's Hengqin and Macao on Thursday.

According to the new measures, services regarding the livelihoods of residents in the Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, including individual cross-border transactions, mobile payments, credit financing, insurance and employment, will be facilitated.

The new measures stress strengthening financial support for tourism, commerce and exhibition industries in Hengqin, as well as promoting the development of international financial leasing and factoring.

The measures expand the scope of cross-border asset transfer and promote cross-border Renminbi settlement, eyeing building a financial rule system on a par with international standards in Hengqin.