Source: CNS
By Tang Guijiang & Yang Wei

 The first Lingnan Forum was held on March 25 at SYSU. 1,200 government officials and experts from the political, academic, business and industrial field, with economist Mr. Wu Jinglian, the Deputy Minister of Commerce and the Deputy Minister of Finance included, have attended the forum to explore the road to China’s economic reforms and contribute their wisdom to a new round of economic growth.       

Officials from the central financial ministries and commissions have been invited to deliver keynote speeches at the forum, and they were Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China and Director of State Administration of Foreign Exchange Yi Gang, Deputy Minister of Finance Li Yong, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Qi Ji, Deputy Minister of Commerce and Deputy Representative of International Trade Negotiation Zhong Shan, and Director of State Tax Administration Xiao Jie. Besides, many scholars including Wu Jinglian and business elites were present and spoke at the forum. Wang Yang, Secretary of Guangdong Provincial Committee of CPC, together with Zhu Xiaodan, Governor of Guangdong Province also attended the forum.
Two round-table discussions have been launched on the topics of “the Momentum and Direction of China’s Financial Reform” and "How to Solve Industry Upgrading”. Many people participated in the discussion: Shen Liantao, Chief Consultant to China Banking Regulatory Commission; Ma Weihua, President and CEO of China Merchants Bank; Dong Jianyue, Chairman of China Guangfa Bank; Ren Huichuan, General Manager of Pingan Group; Li Yi, Chairman of UBS China; Li Chunhong, Head of Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission; Zhang Fangyou, Chairman of Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd; Li Jinming, Chairman of Guangdong Rising Assets Management Co., Ltd.; Bo Lianming, CEO of TCL Group, and so on.

This one-day forum was cosponsored by Lingnan (University) College, Sun Yat-Sen University and Caixin Media. The organizers planned to regularize the Lingnan Forum and invite thousands of political, business and academic cadres every year to get together at Guangdong — the frontier of China’s reform and opening up as well as economic transformation — so as to give in-depth analysis on economic transformation, industrial upgrading, financial reform, investment opportunities, and other major economic issues both at home and abroad.       

Professor Xu Xinzhong, executive chairman of the forum and president of Lingnan (University) College, expressed his hope to build the Lingnan Forum into another important economic forum, following China Development Forum at Beijing and Lujiazui Forum at Shanghai, and also to make it a platform to exchange new thoughts and ideas on reform for the political, business and academic circles.