To coincide with the Year of the Dragon, Sibos, SWIFT’s annual financial services conference, exhibition and networking event, is being held in China for the first time.
In moving to Beijing from Toronto, SWIFT hopes to enhance its position as a global provider of secure financial messaging services, since the city is home to most of China’s biggest companies and the largest number of Fortune Global 500 companies in the world.
In a welcome video released before the Sibos conference opened Monday, Wang Ying of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Local Financial Regulation says Beijing is the only city in China that benefits from programs that are a part of its Pilot Free Trade Zone, nicknamed “Two Zones.” The pilot program, which commenced in 2020, allows Beijing to test a wide range of innovative policies and keep pace with prevailing international economic and trade rules.
“Beijing is taking the lead in the opening up of China’s financial sector and is closely connected to the global financial networks,” she says. “Hosting Sibos in Beijing will definitely help advance the communication and cooperation in the financial community across the world.”
Two Zones has resulted in more than 10 special reform plans being introduced, covering around 500 measures—leading to almost 50 policies being implemented nationally. Over 19,000 projects have been registered in the Two Zones, with more than 12,000 already launched.
The China Financial New Development Index Report 2023 says that in addition to having a favorable environment for financial innovation and development Beijing has made significant achievements in areas such as fintech applications, the development of green finance, the promotion of inclusive finance, the innovation of pension finance, and the construction of digital finance.
The Year of the Dragon is said to be a prosperous year where innovation and business can flourish, while the theme of this year’s Sibos conference: connecting the future of finance, makes Beijing, with its proactive approach to furthering innovation, the ideal location to debate the future of finance, with all its challenges and opportunities.
