Hong Kong Bauhinia Magazine:

The Central Financial Work Conference was held in Beijing in late October last year, making arrangements for current and future financial work and setting a target to accelerate the building of a strong financial sector. Being that finance is a very important and competitive industry in Beijing's economic structure, what considerations are being taken into account with promoting high-quality development of the financial industry and ensuring both development and security? Thank you.

Yin Yong:

Thank you for your question. Mr. Jin Wei will answer this question.

Jin Wei:

Thank you for your question. Beijing is the national financial management center, and its total financial assets have amounted to 215 trillion yuan, accounting for approximately half of the country's overall financial assets. The added value of its financial industry makes up one fifth of the city's added value of all industries, and local tax revenue from this sector also accounts for one fifth of the city's total. With a great sense of responsibility, we will strengthen our commitment to fulfilling our mission in financial work.

First, we will coordinate development and security and assume a greater role as the national financial management center. Beijing is the location of central financial management departments with many well-known domestic and foreign financial institutions gathered here. Our primary task is to provide good services. We actively support the construction of infrastructure facilities such as the National Fintech Risk Monitoring Center in order to create a favorable environment for the implementation of financial policies. The number of listed companies on the Beijing Stock Exchange has tripled since its opening, and we will continue to support its strong development. At the same time, we adhere to our responsibilities and duties, continuously improving the quality and efficiency of supervision, strengthening collaboration between the central and local governments, enhancing risk prevention mechanisms at the source, preventing and defusing risks in key areas in a prudent and orderly way, and promoting high-quality development of the financial industry while safeguarding the bottom line of risk control.

Second, we will observe the principle of serving the people and focus on five key areas. These five key areas are very familiar to journalists, so here I will briefly introduce our ideas. In terms of technological finance, we will focus on building the Zhongguancun Pilot Financial Reform Zone for Scientific and Technological Innovation, exploring new models to integrate support through equity, loans, bonds and insurance, establishing government investment funds, deepening the pilot comprehensive service for the registration and transfer of stock options, and maintaining double-digit growth in loans to high-tech enterprises. In terms of green finance, we will explore green financial standards that are in line with international standards and support the China Beijing Green Exchange in building a voluntary emissions trading institution. In terms of inclusive finance, we will carry out special actions, providing more products and more convenient services at lower costs to micro and small businesses. In terms of pension finance, we will guide financial institutions to improve the quality and efficiency of their services in the elderly care industry and accelerate the development of third-pillar pension plans and long-term care insurance, among others. In terms of digital finance, we will leverage Beijing's position as a global benchmark city for the digital economy, accelerate the digital transformation of finance, build 10 application scenarios of digital RMB and 10 demonstration zones for its use, and expand pilot programs for the regulation on fintech innovation. Additionally, we will guide financial institutions to implement the coordination mechanism for urban real estate financing, support the "three major projects" regarding new infrastructure, such as the construction of affordable housing, continue to explore the pilot program for catastrophic insurance, and increase support for post-disaster reconstruction.

Third, we will follow the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability and take solid steps to promote institutional opening up. We will firmly seize the important opportunities during the construction of the "two zones" and carry out pilot programs such as the integrated capital pooling of domestic and foreign currencies for multinational companies. A number of landmark foreign-funded institutions have successively settled in Beijing.

This year, we will also explore and improve the negative list management for capital projects, continue to advance the QDLP and QFLP pilot schemes, host the Financial Street Forum and Sibos 2024, and promote the opening up of the financial industry to a higher level. Thank you.

Beijing Youth Daily:

Education is an indispensable part of high-quality development for the capital. With the overall decline in the national birthrate, many kindergartens in Beijing have redundant seats and some private kindergartens are experiencing operational difficulties. What considerations does the Beijing municipal government have for these situations and how will it promote the better development of preschool education?

Yu Yingjie:

Thank you for your questions. Preschool education is an important component of basic education and has always been a focus of our government's work. Over the years, Beijing has consistently monitored and analyzed changes in the birthrate and school-age population. As you mentioned, considering the decline in birthrate, empty preschool seats are gradually becoming abundant, especially in private kindergartens where there are more and more vacancies. We have conducted a comprehensive assessment and, based on analysis and study, will simultaneously promote the quality improvement of preschool education and its structural optimization in order to ensure its high-quality development.

First, we will comprehensively improve the quality of preschool education. We will further optimize the resource structure and ensure the availability of resources for public-interest preschool education, responsive to the trends of the eligible population for preschool enrollment. We will further promote the development of the Ministry of Education's experimental zones for improving the quality of preschool education, strengthen the construction of the teaching and research system at the three levels of city, district and kindergarten, and rely on preschool education and research bases to drive the overall improvement of regional preschool education quality. Additionally, we will improve the quality evaluation system and explore scientific evaluation methods.

Second, we will actively promote childcare services. We will conduct childcare work as a forward extension of each child's growth and education chains, implementing an integrated design. We support eligible kindergartens to participate in the pilot program of childcare services, establishing childcare classes for 2- to 3-year-olds while fully meeting the enrollment needs of 3- to 6-year-olds, aiming to provide abundant preschool places for children under three by converting preschool places for children above three. Just now, Mr. Yin said in his opening remarks that, building on the 6,000 new preschool places for children under three last year, 10,000 new places will be added this year to effectively address the needs of childcare services for toddlers.

Third, we will improve our work on private kindergartens. Through enrollment plan management, we will guide private kindergartens to set reasonable enrollment sizes following the supervision and evaluation requirements of the popularization of preschool education for the benefit of all. Simultaneously, we support eligible private kindergartens, especially public-interest ones, in establishing childcare classes. We also support the transformation and development of private kindergartens.

Next, Beijing will maintain the correct direction for preschool education development, enhance the preschool education system and mechanisms, and improve various policy guarantee systems for preschool education. We strive to promote the popularization as well as safe and quality development of preschool education for the benefit of all, meeting the public's expectations for nurturing young children. Thank you!