China Forex: There were substantial reforms in making the renminbi convertible under the capital account in 2015. Could you give us your view of the progress last year and the possible reforms this year?

Guo Song: According to our latest estimate,the renminbi is fully or partly convertible on 37 of the 40 capital and financial items listed under the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s classification system. That is 92.5% of the total,5 percentage points higher than that at the beginning of 2015. In the past year,we deepened reforms in the following key areas: 

We explored new measures to promote greater convertibility of the renminbi for direct investments. In June of 2015,we implemented a policy allowing foreign-invested businesses across China to settle foreign exchange from their own capital whenever they wanted. This made it easier for payments and remittances,and met the market's requirement for reducing exchange rate risk. Meanwhile,we reformed the registration procedures for foreign direct investments,turning over the registration task to banks.

We also made cross-border lending easier. We made uniform regulations for Chinese and foreign-invested enterprises and launched pilot projects under a prudential foreign debt regulatory system whereby companies could determine their own foreign debt ratios. In early 2015,companies in three industrial zones were allowed to borrow funds twice the size of their net assets. These zones were the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone in Beijing,Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone in Shenzhen and the Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone in Jiangsu province.