The conference was opened by Pierre Gramegna, Luxembourg’s Minister of Finance, and Dr. Huang Changqing, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Luxembourg. It was attended by over 30 speakers and more than 400 experts and practitioners.
The Forum provided a platform to discuss the Chinese government’s steps to further reform its market economy and addressed the future of Europe’s relations with China in financial services. This year’s edition was also dedicated to discussing China’s needs and programs in green finance, as well as the rapid developments in mobile payments and e-commerce. The last panel of the Forum focused on China’s capital markets and the different schemes that allow markets access, such as the Stock Connect and the RQFII schemes.
Pierre Gramegna, Luxembourg’s Minister of Finance, stated: “Luxembourg has accompanied China’s financial opening-up. The Luxembourg financial center has not only become one of the main conduits for Chinese investments into Europe, but has also stood ready to share its longstanding expertise in international finance in order to help facilitate the internationalisation of the Renminbi as well as investments into the Chinese capital markets. In order to further develop our long-lasting and strong ties, the Luxembourg government has also been keen to assist China to meet its key goals as a multilateral player, and to develop successful policies.”
More recently Luxembourg’s relations and connections have been further deepened in the field of climate finance. China’s and Luxembourg’s shared commitment to the COP21 objectives, are already coming to fruition on the private sector level. Indeed, not only do Chinese banks list Green bonds in Luxembourg, but partnerships have been created between stock exchanges to create the first Chinese Green bond index, which provides quotes between China and Europe using Luxembourg’s Green Exchange.
Facts and figures
- Six Chinese banks are using Luxembourg as their hub in Europe
- Luxembourg is the 2nd largest global domicile of investment funds investing into Mainland China behind Hong Kong
- Luxembourg is the largest listing centre in Europe for Dim Sum bonds and second globally behind Hong Kong
- Luxembourg is the leading European RMB and RQFII centre