BEIJING, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- High-profile guests gathered in Beijing on Monday for the opening of the Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum 2026.

With a theme of "Building an Open, Collaborative and Inclusive Ecosystem for Global Financial Development," this year's conference is attracting prominent guests from home and abroad who will participate in various activities, including the main forum, parallel forums, thematic conferences and side events during the four-day event.

During the opening ceremony, Yin Li, secretary of the Communist Party of China Beijing Municipal Committee, said that Beijing has become an important bridge connecting Chinese and foreign financial markets.

He said the capital city is ready to deepen financial exchanges and practical cooperation with all parties, jointly build an open and interconnected financial market ecosystem, and create a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based, convenient and internationalized.

The forum, inaugurated in 2012 as a platform for global exchange and cooperation in the field of finance, has grown into a major source of updates on China's financial policies, providing a window into the work priorities of the financial sector in the world's second-largest economy.

Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, said the central bank has actively promoted the transformation and improvement of China's monetary policy framework, further enriched its monetary policy toolkit, and made the market-based interest rate regulation mechanism clearer.

Going forward, the central bank will assess and improve the monetary policy framework, continue to raise the level of RMB internationalization, further strengthen high-quality policy supply, and explore the application of artificial intelligence in areas such as assisting with monetary policy situation analysis and financial risk identification.

Pan also unveiled that the central bank will join with other financial authorities to introduce a number of policy measures.

These include establishing a liquidity support facility to address large-scale redemptions by non-bank institutions, expanding the range of institutions eligible for the Standing Lending Facility, and promoting connectivity between the interbank and exchange bond markets.

Other policy measures to be introduced include pilot measures to facilitate foreign financial institutions' RMB purchase and sale business in the onshore foreign exchange market, and issuing guidelines regarding financial support for building international science and technology innovation centers in Beijing (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region), Shanghai (the Yangtze River Delta), and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, according to Pan.

Ding Xiangqun, head of the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), said that the NFRA is enhancing the effectiveness of regulation, adopting a risk-based approach to strengthen financial supervision, improving the financial rule of law in line with practical needs, and strengthening regulatory capacity in key areas.

Ding said the NFRA remains committed to actively expanding new space for financial opening-up, supporting international economic and trade exchanges, and improving the global financial governance system.

Regarding the capital market, Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said the CSRC will make every effort to safeguard its safety and stability by closely tracking market dynamics at home and abroad, strengthening risk assessment and the policy toolkit, and enhancing risk prevention for new types of businesses.

According to him, China will facilitate cross-border investment and financing by enhancing the convenience of investment operations through the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors scheme.

Foreign-funded entities are encouraged to leverage their parent companies' professional expertise and strengths to further refine their product portfolios and participate in innovative business areas in China, Wu added.

Fu Hua, president of Xinhua News Agency, said at the opening ceremony that creating a favorable public opinion climate for financial reform and development is an important part of building a new ecosystem for financial development, adding that Xinhua stands ready to make an effort toward that end.

Zhu Hexin, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), said a batch of incremental measures will be rolled out to better support enterprises in engaging in international cooperation and competition.

These include facilitation measures for the current account to better meet the diverse settlement needs of foreign trade enterprises and support the development of new forms and models of trade, and measures to optimize foreign exchange management under the capital account to better meet enterprises' needs for cross-border investment, financing and fund allocation, and expand two-way investment cooperation.

Zhu revealed that China intends to expand its pilot program that allows securities companies to conduct foreign exchange settlement and sales business, and support financial institutions in providing exchange rate risk management services to enterprises.

The annual conference, which runs from Oct. 19 to 22, is jointly hosted by the Beijing Municipal People's Government, the People's Bank of China, the NFRA, the CSRC, Xinhua News Agency and the SAFE.