China vows to boost BRICS financial cooperation: ministers

2017-03-20
Xinhua

BADEN-BADEN, Germany — China will work actively with parties concerned to push forward the financial cooperation among the BRICS countries and make more achievements, China’s finance minister and central bank chief have said.

They made the remarks on March 17 at the BRICS summit for finance ministers and central bankers held in Germany’s southwestern city of Baden-Baden.

China’s Finance Minister Xiao Jie noted that the BRICS, comprising of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, have been coordinating constantly and deepening cooperation in the financial sector, and made major contributions in promoting growth for BRICS and world economy and improving global economic governance.

Xiao said the BRICS in recent years have made landmark achievements like establishing New Development Bank BRICS, Contingent Reserve Arrangement, offering vital platforms for enhancing and deepening the financial cooperation among BRICS countries.

In 2017, China will work to further promote the existing cooperation mechanisms of the BRICS, and meanwhile explore cooperation in fields of public-private partnership, boosting convergence of accounting standards on bond-issuing and related auditing, and taxation, in a bid to lift the current financial cooperation to a new level, Xiao said.

China’s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, on the same day, said the BRICS should further step up cooperation under the framework of the Group of Twenty (G20), especially in fields of international financial architecture, inclusive finance and green finance.

Zhou suggested the BRICS could discuss topics on improving network layout of the financial institutions and services, and promoting currency swap and settlement in local currencies, in a bid to boost pragmatic financial cooperation and prepare for the coming BRICS state leaders’ summit in Xiamen, China in September.