The novel coronavirus pneumonia has brought the world economy an impact and has also challenged global financial practitioners. What are the most pressing risks at the moment? What are the biggest development opportunities in the future? At the Shanghai summit of the global wealth management forum held on June 26, financial experts from different countries had a "cloud" dialogue to find out.
Mark machin, President and chief executive officer of the Canadian pension fund investment company, believes that the main risk facing global investment institutions is the rise of protectionism and populism. These trends have exacerbated Global trade disputes, slowed the flow of capital, goods and services, and threatened the prospects of globalization. "Hopefully it's only temporary, but it could have long-term effects."
In the view of Sir Douglas flint, chairman of standard life's ABN group, the world is facing a series of challenges such as epidemic, population growth and unbalanced economic development among countries. It is impossible to solve the problem by relying on a single country or even relying on regional cooperation. All parties must shelve geopolitical competition, cooperate and allocate resources on a global scale.
China's "one belt, one road" construction has contributed to this, for example. In order to achieve one belt, one road is to promote international financial cooperation, to involve global asset managers, to provide capital for infrastructure development, to enhance global resilience, to create new asset classes and to provide sustainable and attractive returns, thereby contributing to economic growth.
Under the epidemic situation, financial markets are in turmoil, global wealth is shrinking, and asset returns are declining. Where can we find good investment opportunities?
Axel Weber, chairman of UBS, said China. He said the group would continue to invest in China, which is the largest emerging market and has great opportunities in asset management in the coming decades, as well as one of the fast-growing capital markets. "Any field in China is an opportunity, and our strategy is completely consistent with China's opening up."
Jean Jacques barb é RIS, global head of institutional and corporate clients at Calgary Oriental and former economic adviser to the French president, is optimistic about the prospects for cooperation between European and Chinese financial institutions in the field of sustainable development and ESG (environment, social and corporate governance). He said, for example, that the EU is promoting a new sustainable financial classification system. At present, there are ongoing dialogues between Europe and China to try to make the classification system more consistent with the classification system being established by Chinese regulators. This will be one of the key areas of EU China financial cooperation.
Lawrence Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, is trying to find business opportunities in China's huge domestic market. He noted that China is transforming into a market driven by domestic demand, and the future economic development will be more driven by consumption and other factors.
Mr Fink said that China's saving rate is very high, most of the funds lie in bank accounts with low interest rates, and these assets will bring higher returns if placed in pension products. As China's financial markets become more open, the agency hopes to create a global pension plan for Chinese savers and retirees to help people have more spending power after retirement.