Spotlight: High-level China-Germany financial dialogue maps cooperation ahead

BERLIN, March 18 (Xinhua) — China and Germany
conducted their first high-level financial dialogue here on Tuesday and
agreed to strengthen macro-economic policy coordination, hold policy
dialogue and promote pragmatic cooperation in fiscal and financial
areas.

China's Vice Finance Minister Shi Yaobin told Xinhua that the
fruitful results of the First China-Germany High Level Financial
Dialogue, which lasted one day, show new highlights of fiscal and
financial cooperation as well as future cooperation between the two
countries.

Shi, a member of the Chinese delegation for the meeting, said that
the successful conclusion of the dialogue, whose main task was to
implement agreements reached by leaders of the two countries, marked a
good start of China-Germany exchanges in 2015 and was important for
maintaining the momentum of bilateral cooperation.

He said that as the inaugural session of this financial dialogue
mechanism, the talks on Tuesday focused on two aspects — to assess the
overall orientation of economic cooperation between the two countries
and to develop pragmatic cooperation in areas where interests of both
sides meet.

The Chinese official also underlined some of the most noteworthy
consensuses reached at the dialogue, including Germany's support for
China's goal to add its currency renminbi (RMB) to the Special Drawing
Rights (SDR) currency basket based on existing criteria.

Germany will also "actively support China in hosting the G20 summit in 2016," Shi added.

At the dialogue, Germany also announced its intention to join the
Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as a prospective founding
member, which was welcomed by China.

Both sides encouraged each other's banking institutions to set up
establishments or develop business operations in their respective
markets and planned to hold consultations on bank supervision.

They also supported the establishment and development of an offshore
RMB market and a local RMB clearing bank in Frankfurt and welcomed
German financial institutions using RMB qualified foreign institutional
investors (RQFII) quota to invest in Chinese markets.

Commenting on the high-level financial dialogue, Horst Loechel,
professor of economics at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management,
told Xinhua that strengthening financial cooperation between Germany and
China will benefit both countries.

The event marks an important milestone in China-Germany financial
cooperation after bilateral endeavor to make Frankfurt a renminbi
clearing hub, said Loechel.

The progress in economic and political cooperation between the two
countries will help improve the overall atmosphere for bilateral
economic cooperation, and thus bring more opportunities for businesses
and people of the two countries, he said.

From a strategic point of view, Loechel noted that "the old East-West
constellation is becoming outdated, and Europe of course can also have
good cooperation with China and Asia in general."

"Europe is redefining its position in the world. This is especially
true for Germany which increasingly plays a leading role in Europe
thanks to its economic success," he said.

The First China-Germany High Level Financial Dialogue was declared
concluded by Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai, German Finance Minister
Wolfgang Schaeuble and Deutsche Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann. A
high-level delegation of senior officials from each country attended the
meeting.