More than 500 financial officials, scholars and entrepreneurs from Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao brainstormed on boosting Fintech development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area at the 2018 China (Shenzhen) Fintech Global Summit at Wuzhou Guest House in Futian District yesterday.
“Everyone talks about Fintech. We believe that the essence of Fintech still lies in finance and it is a tool to satisfy the demand of traditional banks. It cannot change the nature of banks and shouldn’t change them as well. So we have a saying which goes: Technology simplifies finance, rather than disrupting finance,” said Ye Wangchun, chairman and CEO of Ping An Financial OneConnect.
Ba Shusong, chief Chinese economist and managing director of Hong Kong Exchanges, said that he recently read an article in Economist that said Fintech is a good solution, but requires constantly searching for problems.
“For example, you look for a problem in the financial scene and then use the solution [of Fintech] to solve it,” he said.
According to Ba, the exchange is actively trying to apply the technologies and means of Fintech.
Ma Bin, vice president of Tencent, said Shenzhen plays a great role in the digital era. “The digital era has arrived. All industries, when they connect to the Internet, will find a new system in the future.”
Shenzhen Vice Mayor Ai Xuefeng said the city has attached great importance to the development of the Fintech industry.
The city set up a Fintech special award in 2017 to encourage the incubation and development of quality Fintech projects, which is a breakthrough in the field of science and technology, according to him.
Seven Fintech projects won the award last year, five from Shenzhen and two from Hong Kong, with the total of the prizes reaching 3 million yuan (US$441,000).
The first prize went to a project researching the applications of a digital currency prototype by the Fintech Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China.
This year, the city will award 14 projects and expand the prize pool to 6 million yuan, according to the vice mayor.
A round table dialogue themed “Fintech Supports the Development of Real Economy,” hosted by Di Gang, vice head of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China, was also held during the summit.