March 16, 2009. Shanghai campus -- An impressive roster of 10 influential financial industry experts and officials spoke at today’s seminar entitled “The Road to the London Summit,” co-hosted by the CEIBS Lujiazui International Financial Research Centre (CLFC) and the British Consulate General, Shanghai. Held at the CEIBS Shanghai campus auditorium, the half-day event featured a lively discussion concerning the best outcomes for the world financial industry at the upcoming April 2 London Summit meeting of the G20.
CEIBS Vice President and Co-Dean Zhang Weijiong opened the event with a welcome address stressing the necessity for government’s worldwide to avoid protectionism as they address the ongoing financial crisis. He reminded the audience of 200 academics, students and finance industry executives that CEIBS will be hosting a number of finance-related forum throughout 2009, through the CEIBS Lujiazui Finance Salon Series, the 2009 China Bankers Forum, the Lujiazui Forum, and more. He thanked Madame Wu Xiaoling, Deputy Director of the Finnacial and Eocnomic Affairs Committee and Standing Committee Member of the National People’s Congress for serving as Director of the CLFC.
Madame Wu Xiaoling
Acting as event moderator, Mr Duncan Sparkes, Counsellor of Economic & Trade Policy for the British Embassy in Beijing, next took to the podium to introduce the first panel of the day, focusing on "Responding to the Crisis: The Road to the London Summit." He stressed the importance of the upcoming summit meeting, the first large-scale meeting of the G20 since the November 15 meeting in Washington DC. "The situation has gotten worse since the November meeting," he said. "It is worth remembering how much emerging markets have been hit." He sited statistics estimating that 32 million additional people will become jobless in 2009 while another 53 million will be pushed into ‘extreme poverty.
While he complimented Chinese banks as remaining "largely unscathed," he added that in today’s global economy "no one is immune" from the crisis. In particular, it is estimated that up to 20 million of China’s migrant workers have lost their jobs.
If the April 2 summit is a success, he said, it will have achieved four goals: stabilizing world markets while resisting protectionism, reforming financial institutions and strengthening regulation of the financial sector, and putting the global economy on track for more sustainable growth in the future -- and ensuring that the recovery benefits the worlds' poorest countries. He added that China can contribute to the goals of the summit by managing its own economy well, avoiding protectionism, rebalancing the economy toward domestic consumption, and by engaging actively in the debate concerning the reform of international financial institutions.
Mr. Sparkes then introduced two sets of distinguished speakers. The first panel, addressing the topic “Evolution of the Finnacial and Economic Crisis” included: Shanghai Municipal Government Financial Services Office Director General Mr Fang Xinghai; China Business News Chief Editor Mr Qin Shuo; SASS Institute of World Economy Director Mr. Zhang Youwen; Economist Intelligence Unit Corporate Network (Shanghai) Director Ms Mary Boyd; and Fudan University World Economic Research Institute Director Professor Hua Min. The second panel, addressing "Responding to the Crisis: The Road to the London Summit,” included: National People's Congress Standing Committee Member nd Financial and Eocnomic Affairs Committee Deputy Director Madame Wu Xiaoling; JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Managing Director, Chief Economist and China Research /Strategy Head Mr. Frank Gong; Pudong Academy of Development Congress Department Deputy Director Mr Wang Guoxing; SASS Institute of World Economy Deputy Directory Mr Xu Mingqi, and Fudan University School of Economics Dean Professor Sun Lijian.
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