Global Times: China's financial services empower tech innovations, injecting momentum to real economy: Financial Street Forum participants

BEIJING, Oct. 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Financial resources will focus on intelligent, green and integrated directions, support the upgrading of traditional industries and promote the growth of emerging and future industries, Li Yunze, head of China's National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), said at the opening ceremony of the Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum (FSF) 2025 on Monday, sending a fresh signal of the country's financial support for innovations. 

The NFRA will promote sustained, healthy economic and social development by enabling the financial sector to better serve the real economy, by strengthening the momentum and vitality of the financial sector via reform and opening-up, and by balancing financial development and security more effectively, Li said. 

Currently, a new round of technological revolution is accelerating worldwide, with emerging industries such as artificial intelligence (AI) and humanoid robotics witnessing rapid development. Against this backdrop, how finance can empower technological innovations and contribute to the real economy has become central.

At the FSF in Beijing from Monday to Thursday under the theme of "Global Financial Development in an Era of Innovation, Transformation and Restructuring," participants conducted in-depth discussions over financial support for economic high-quality development.

Bridging financial & innovation

The forum helps enterprises achieve technological breakthroughs and enhance core competitiveness through financial support, thereby accelerating upgrading of China's industrial chains, Shen Yan, a deputy head of the Institute of Digital Finance at Peking University, told the Global Times.

Looking ahead, China's financial sector should continue to follow the principle of serving the real economy, Shen said. First, capital should be allocated to sectors and industries that are of strategic importance to the nation's development and transformation. Second, markets and technological infrastructure should be better utilized to reduce transaction and risk costs and to advance digital finance. Third, preventing and containing risks is a central focus of financial work, according to Shen.

Hangzhou-based startup Zhejiang Lianxin Technology Co Ltd, an AI-driven mental-health startup, has developed more than 280 intellectual property rights and represents the new wave of specialized, innovative tech enterprises.

Previously, asset-light small and medium-sized tech firms struggled to obtain bank financing due to a lack of collateral. However, the Bank of Communications recently provided 10 million yuan ($1.41 million) in credit support to the startup company for digital asset collateralization, which marks the first such financing in the AI field in Zhejiang Province, according to a press release the bank sent to the Global Times recently.

This case reflects broader, intensified financial support for the real economy. The quality and effectiveness of financial services for the real economy has been enhanced significantly during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), with the annual average growth rate of loans for tech small and medium-sized firms, inclusive loans to micro businesses, and green credit all grew by more than 20 percent annually, official data showed.

As the tech sector expands rapidly, over 90 percent of newly-listed enterprises are tech firms or tech-heavy enterprises, and the market valuation of tech companies in the A-share market accounts for more than a quarter of the total market capitalization, official data showed.

Tech growth - from research and development (R&D) to commercialization - depends heavily on sustained financial support. Yang Delong, chief economist at Shenzhen-based First Seafront Fund, told the Global Times on Tuesday that emerging industries such as humanoid robotics remain largely in the lab-to-market stage, and sustained and highly efficient financial support will play an important role in encouraging startups to strengthen R&D and upgrade industrial structures.

Systemic policy support

Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People's Bank of China (PBC), said at the same opening ceremony on Monday that the Chinese central bank has adhered to a supportive monetary policy stance, creating a favorable monetary and financial environment for China's economic recovery and the stable operations of its financial market amid complex domestic and international situations. 

Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said that the CSRC will expand high-level institutional opening-up steadily, enhance the protection of investor rights and seek to improve the inclusivity, adaptability, attractiveness and competitiveness of China's capital market. 

In August, the PBC and six other ministries jointly issued guidelines to strengthen financial support for new industrialization.

Analysts said the document signals a new stage of coordination between financial policies and industrial policies, marking a shift from broad-based funding to precision-targeted support.

The 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held its fourth plenary session in Beijing from October 20 to 23.

The recommendations of the CPC for the 15th Five-Year Plan have made it a top priority to build a modernized industrial system and strengthen the foundations of the real economy, Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a press conference on Friday on the guiding principles from the fourth plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee.

To meet these goals, Zheng said China will upgrade traditional industries, cultivate and expand emerging and future sectors, advance high-quality services and build a modernized infrastructure system.

The 15th Five-Year Plan will serve as a blueprint linking China's world-class manufacturing to its leadership in AI, green energy and robotics. It will move China from speed to precision, from imitation to innovation and from scale to intelligence, Jack Perry Junior, chairman of the 48 Group Club and CEO of London Export Corp, who also attended this year's forum, told the Global Times in a recent interview.

"I expect breakthroughs in AI, robotics, semiconductors, and energy systems. China's progress in these areas will set the tone for global industrial modernization," he said.

SOURCE Global Times