Source: Lingnan (University) College
Written by: Lingnan (University) College
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

The 4th Lingnan Forum was held in K.K. Leung Hall of Sun Yat-sen University on March 29, 2015 with the theme of “China’s Economy: Reform under New Normal”. The forum was jointly run by Lingnan (University) College, Sun Yat-sen University and Caixin Media, bringing together over a thousand of attendees, including senior government officials, business executives and academic scholars.

Mr. XU Shaohua, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and Executive Vice Governor of Guangdong Province, delivered an opening remark at the forum. He indicated that the theme of the Forum this year corresponded with the development of Guangdong. Due to the policy of reform and opening-up, the past 30 years have witnessed tremendous development of Guangdong Province. He emphasized that Guangdong has entered a new normal stage, in which Guangdong people should embrace new opportunities and challenges. In the end, he welcomed all participants and hoped that the forum would inspire more ideas for the reform and opening-up of Guangdong.

Prof. LUO Jun, President of Sun Yat-sen University, congratulated on the successful holding of Lingnan Forum for three years in a row, which is a gathering of great minds and inspiring ideas. He really looked forward to the forum this year as it focused on the strategies of reform in China’s New Normal. He hoped that the forum could benefit teachers and students in their research and study.

The session of keynote speeches was introduced by Mr. WANG Peng, a famous host from Guangdong Television (GDTV). Speakers included: Mr. LI Shaoping, Vice President of the Supreme People’s Court; Mr. CHEN Wenhui, Vice President of China Insurance Regulatory Commission; Mr. JIA Kang, former Head of Research Institute for Fiscal Science under the Ministry of Finance; Mr. GAO Zhikai, Vice President of Sino-Europe United Investment Corporation; and Ms. HU Shuli, Editor-in-Chief of Caixin Media.

In the afternoon, Lingnan Forum continued with two panels of round-table discussion, revolving around the topics "Accelerating Financial Reform" and "Invigorating Market Economy". The first round-table discussion was presided over by Prof. LU Jun, Associate Dean of Lingnan (University) College, and Professor in Finance. The guests were: Mr. LU Lei, Director of Research Bureau of The People's Bank of China, Secretary-General of China Society for Finance and Banking; Mr. JIA Kang, former Head of Research Institute for Fiscal Science under the Ministry of Finance; Mr. ZHANG Shaohui, Assistant Director of the Authority of Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone; Mr. WANG Jun, Lead Financial Sector Specialist, Finance and Markets, World Bank; Prof. XU Chenggang, Professor in Economic Development, The University of Hong Kong; Mr. CHAI Hongfeng, Executive Vice President of China UnionPay; and Mr. CHEN Long, Chief Strategy Officer of Alibaba's Ant Financial Services Group.

The second panel was hosted by Prof. ZHANG Jianqi, Professor of Management, Lingnan (University) College. The invitees were: Mr. LI Chunhong, Director General of Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission; Ms. Marjorie Yang, Chairman of Esquel Group; Ms. WANG Dan, Vice General Manager of Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd.; Mr. LI Lianzhu, Chairman of Homekoo; Mr. WANG Wenjing, Chairman and CEO of Yonyou Software Co. Ltd.; and Mr. PANG Zhenguo, General Manager of Quality Control and Resources Management of JDB.

At the end of the forum, Prof. LIU Mingkang, Honorary Dean of Lingnan (University) College, former Chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission and Chairman of the Lingnan Forum, shared his thoughts. He cited two examples. The first one was the blue and clear sky during 2008 Summer Olympics and 2014 APEC Meeting in Beijing. The second one was the anti-corruption campaign vigorously carried out by the central government.

The closing speech for the forum was made by Prof. XU Xinzhong, Dean of Lingnan (University) College and Executive Chairman of Lingnan Forum. On behalf of Lingnan (University) College, he expressed his sincere gratitude to all the participants from all walks of life for their great support for Lingnan Forum. He highly praised this forum as a platform to bring together a rich pool of knowledge and ideas by listening to different kinds of voices from business elites, senior government officials and research scholars. He mentioned that student is the core of every university and their future will influence the future of the whole society and even the human race. Lingnan (University) College would make every endeavor to build itself into a world-class college and cultivate excellent students to contribute to the society.