China pledges steady efforts to push capital account opening-up

BEIJING - The Chinese regulator has pledged to take steady and orderly efforts to push further opening-up in the capital account.

At a work conference on Tuesday, China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) outlined major tasks for the latter half of the year, including the implementation of the pre-establishment national treatment with a negative list.

It will also improve mechanisms for overseas institutional investors, including Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor and RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor programs.

China will expand the pilot regions for more convenient trade settlements and improve the management framework for cross-border capital flows for better protection against external shocks, according to a statement on the SAFE website.

Earlier data showed Chinese banks recorded total net forex sales of $33.2 billion in the first half of the year, with cross-border capital flows remaining basically stable.