The Shanghai Head Office of the People's Bank of China, the central bank, outlined its key tasks for 2024 at a work conference on Jan 10.

Maintaining a favorable monetary environment

(1)Maintain stable growth in monetary credit and social financing scale 

(2)Encourage financial institutions to increase support for the three leading industries of integrated circuits, biomedicine and artificial intelligence as well as six key industries of electronic information, healthcare, automobiles, high-end equipment, advanced materials and fashion 

(3)Enhance financial support for new technologies, “new track” industries and new markets

(4)Support financial institutions to conduct settlements for new trade formats

(5)Promote the stable and healthy development of the real estate market in Shanghai

(6)Strengthen support for key sectors by leveraging bonds and bills

Carrying out five major initiatives

(1)Enhance financial support for technology firms

(2) Provide more green financing products and improve their service system

(3) Provide better financial service to medium, small and micro-sized enterprises

(4) Increase financial support for the healthcare industry and silver economy

(5) Expand the application scenarios of the digital yuan

Addressing systemic financial risks

(1)Monitor risks in key areas and facilitate the resolution of institutional risks

(2) Conducting supplementary regulatory work related to systemically important financial institutions 

(3) Advance the governance of gambling and fraud-related “chain of funds” 

(4) Continue efforts in the three-year action plan against money laundering crimes

(5) Strengthen the security management of credit information

Advancing high-level financial opening-up

(1)Promote the internationalization of the Renminbi and enhance the convenience of cross-border financial services 

(2)Expand the scale of RMB settlement in oil and gas trade

(3)Explore the establishment of a high-quality financial service system compatible with the development of the high-end shipping industry

(4)Enrich the application scenarios of free trade accounts

(5)Deepen the opening-up of financial markets

(6)Improve its role as an agent for investments from overseas central banks

Managing foreign exchange

(1) Advance the pilot reform of foreign exchange business in banks 

(2) Optimize enterprise exchange rate hedging services and keep promoting the concept of exchange rate risk neutrality 

(3) Serve the development of the headquarters economy 

(4) Promote the pilot program for cross-border equity capital investment 

(5) Continue to crack down on illegal cross-border financial services