Recently, the Hainan Provincial Development and Reform Commission has proposed ten specific measures to service foreign investment. These measures show that Hainan is expanding its opening up and actively using foreign capital. At the same time, many measures have been proposed in the "China Hainan Pilot Free Trade Zone Overall Plan" to remove restrictions on foreign equity ratios, and greatly relax foreign capital market access. For example, the limit of relaxing foreign shareholding of life insurance companies is 51%, from the previous limit 50% to 51%. In fact it has undergone some fundamental changes, and these changes are of great significance. Vice Dean Zhuang Rui said in an interview with the TV station that the reform of our financial industry actually includes securities, insurance, and banking. The pace of our country's reform is actually a gradual mode. The measures taken by the Hainan Provincial Development and Reform Commission are mainly reflected in two aspects: The first is that after 40 years of reform and opening up in our country, the reform must be further deepened. This includes that insurance industry allows foreign ownership. This embodies our more open attitude in our financial sector marked by Hainan. The other also reflects our open and more cautious attitude in the financial sector. We just made a fine-tuning to allow foreign ownership to be held.
When talking about the crisis in the financial field, Professor Zhuang put forward the most typical case is the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Why did the financial crisis hit Thailand? It was because their capital accounts and financial systems opened up too early and too quickly, so it is easier for hot money to enter. If opening up too quickly when your own financial system was not perfect, you have to pay a price.
Finally, Professor Zhuang believes that loosing policy measures such as the direct removal of restrictions on foreign shareholding reflect our country’s opening to modern service.
