Xi Jinping calls on Shanghai to go global
President urges city to go beyond national borders, in comments seen as strong backing for its ambitions to be an international financial hub
President Xi Jinping has encouraged Shanghai to open up more investment doors around the world, a fresh sign that the leadership will give the city a freer hand in financial liberalisation.
"We must strengthen innovation to support financial reforms," Xinhua quoted the president as saying to a panel session of the National People's Congress (NPC) on Thursday.
"The ability to allocate financial resources globally must be bolstered to serve the country's economic development."
Xi's remarks were seen as the strongest verbal support by a top state leader for Shanghai's bid to become an international financial centre.
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Over the last six years, Shanghai has embarked on a mission to transform itself into a global financial hub by 2020 but question marks have hung over those ambitions as fears among state regulators about rampant hot money flows have deterred Shanghai from drastically liberalising the capital market.
In 2013, Shanghai launched the mainland's first free-trade zone aimed at making the area a test bed for experimental policies such as a fully convertible yuan. But the development of the free-trade zone has failed to live up to expectations.