Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, January 6th Title: Increase efforts! The foreign exchange field continues to release the dividends of reform

Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Kaixiong

To reduce the burden and increase efficiency of enterprises, new measures will be taken in foreign exchange management in 2025!

At the 2025 National Foreign Exchange Management Work Conference ended in Beijing a few days ago, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange will anchor the key tasks in 2025 to establish and improve the "more convenient, more open and safer" foreign exchange management system and mechanism. A series of deep-seated reform measures in the foreign exchange field have "intensified" to release reform dividends and helped enterprises to go into battle lightly.

More convenient, reducing burdens and increasing efficiency for enterprises

Whether it is the internal and external connectivity of China's economy or the "China Travel" craze for foreign tourists, foreign exchange cannot be avoided. Promoting foreign exchange facilitation reforms that are within reach of foreign exchange services have always been the focus of reform in the field of foreign exchange management in recent years.

In 2024, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange accelerated the launch of a series of facilitation measures: three pilot projects for facilitation of cross-border investment and financing, and the cross-border financing facilitation policy has benefited 1.3 million high-tech and "specialized and specialized" enterprises across the country; the administrative license for registration of foreign trade enterprises was cancelled, the special foreign exchange withdrawal was relaxed from registration standards, etc. After the policy optimization, the number of administrative license transactions under the current account decreased by about 90% year-on-year.

The policy of facilitating foreign exchange receipts and expenditures for high-quality enterprises has benefited 24,000 high-quality enterprises, including 14,000 small and medium-sized enterprises; the cross-border e-commerce foreign exchange payment business is about US$26 billion, serving more than 1.3 million small and micro merchants; the online self-service collection and settlement rate of national market procurement trade exceeds 80%, benefiting about 200,000 small and micro merchants; the foreign currency exchange service of 74 key airports, more than 4,400 hotels and nearly 800 cultural and tourism scenic spots has basically full coverage... In 2024, foreign exchange facilitation measures will bring tangible dividends to enterprises.

On March 19, 2024, Mali merchants (left) purchased photovoltaic accessories in a shop in China Small Commodity City in Yiwu. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Weng Xinyang

The first "intensification" of the key tasks of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange in 2025 is still in the reform of foreign exchange facilitation: incorporating more technology-based enterprises into the pilot program of cross-border financing facilitation, promoting the optimization and expansion of trade facilitation policies, improving the facilitation level of foreign exchange business in new trade formats, and optimizing the foreign exchange management of overseas loans by domestic enterprises...

More open, helping enterprises develop better

The foreign exchange field is an important window for my country to open up to the outside world. Steadily expanding institutional opening-up, actively connecting with international high-standard rules, and actively creating a transparent, stable and predictable institutional environment have also become an important direction for my country's foreign exchange management reform.

On December 18, 2024, the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange announced the optimization of pilot policies for integrated domestic and foreign currencies of multinational corporations. This is the policy that has been optimized and expanded again since the first batch of pilot projects was launched in March 2021 to the expansion of pilot projects in 2022. As of the end of November 2024, more than 1,000 multinational companies have carried out fund pool business, and 17,000 member companies have entered the pool.

Revise the regulations on the management of domestic securities and futures investment funds for overseas institutional investors; improve corporate exchange rate risk management services; issue the 2024 edition of the enterprise exchange rate risk management guidelines; guide foreign exchange trading centers to exempt interbank flat fees related to foreign exchange derivative transactions in small and medium-sized enterprises; promote the implementation of high-level opening-up pilot projects for cross-border trade and investment in 8 provinces and cities; guide the Xinjiang Free Trade Pilot Zone to introduce foreign exchange innovation measures... Accelerate the promotion of institutional opening up, and a series of reform and opening-up measures in the foreign exchange field are steadily.

A view of Qianhai, Shenzhen under the sunset glow (photo_alt_20190808" (photo taken on July 23, 2024, panoramic photo of the drone). Xinhua News Agency (photo by Tong Yanlong)

"Strive to promote institutional opening up in the foreign exchange field" is one of the key tasks in 2025. According to the head of relevant departments of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, on the one hand, it is to continuously optimize existing policies, such as multinational corporations’ fund pool policy, domestic enterprises’ overseas listing funds management, etc., and on the other hand, it is to accelerate the improvement of the foreign exchange market construction, guide financial institutions to better provide exchange rate risk management services, and help foreign-related enterprises improve their ability to deal with exchange rate fluctuations. "We will also support the construction of the international financial centers in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and support the Hainan Free Trade Port and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to carry out foreign exchange management innovation." The person in charge said.

Safeteria, "released" and "controlled". Under open conditions, how to further improve regulatory capabilities and levels and ensure that the foreign exchange field is both "released" and "controlled" has always been the key content of the reform of the foreign exchange management department.

In recent years, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange has continued to strengthen the two-in-one management of the foreign exchange market "macrop prudence + micro-regulation" and strengthened countercyclical adjustment and expected guidance. The market participants have become more rational and the resilience of the foreign exchange market has been significantly enhanced. Crack down on foreign exchange illegal and criminal activities always maintain a high pressure. According to reports, in 2024, the foreign exchange management department investigated and dealt with more than 1,000 foreign exchange violations; cooperated with the public security organs to crack more than 200 underground money houses, cross-border gambling, and tax fraud cases.

The head of relevant departments of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange revealed that the key tasks in 2025 also include "strengthening efforts to maintain the basic stability of the foreign exchange market" and "strengthening efforts to build a complete and effective foreign exchange supervision system", etc., to better coordinate development and security, base ourselves on the present and look to the long-term, and while implementing more active and proactive foreign exchange management policies, effectively prevent and resolve external shock risks and help enterprises develop smoothly.