以“中国资本市场和宏观经济”为主题的上海金融论坛近日在沪举行。1月19日，《Shanghai Daily》对此进行了报道。

Experts: reforms and innovation are priorities to sustain China’s growth

CHINA needs to promote financial reforms and innovation to tackle domestic and international challenges this year, experts said at the recent Shanghai Finance Forum.

The slow global economic growth and populist insurrections in the west will be the external challenges for China while the domestic structural reforms will further impair economic momentum of the country, experts told the forum organized by the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance.

Wang Jiang, Mizuho Financial Group Professor at the Sloan School of Management, said China is transforming from priorities in size, government and investment to efficiency, market, and innovation.

Key to the transformation is a modern and open financial system, which is now lagging the development of the economy.

China needs to learn more from the global experience to solve the conflicts between reforms and maintaining economic growth, Wang added.

Robert Merton, Nobel laureate in economics and professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said financial technology can improve efficiency and transparency in the financial system, helping China to thrive amid global market uncertainties.

He said it is possible to employ bitcoin technology to provide efficient non-centralized clearing and settling services.

New derivative products can be invented and used to efficiently transfer risks among global financial systems to improve integration and diversification.

Zhu Min, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said that structural reform, more efficient investment, and supportive monetary and fiscal policies can help China re-balance the economy.

He said structural reforms need to focus on enhance competitiveness of the product market, lift flexibility of the labor market, increase labor efficiency in services industries, and reform the pension and social security funds.

Investment can be more efficient in infrastructure projects, research and development, education, and healthcare systems.

High quality fiscal spending and monetary policies with clear targets are also essential to sustain China's economic growth, Zhu added.