On June 18, the 2026 Lujiazui Forum commenced. AIA Group Chief Executive Officer and President Lee Yuan Siong attended and delivered a speech at the "Plenary Session VII: Enhancing the Effectiveness and Precision of Inclusive Finance."
Lee Yuan Siong stated that the core significance of inclusive finance has long been to expand financial participation, increase financial account access, and broaden service coverage, thereby bringing more groups into the formal financial system.
"China has made substantial and remarkable progress in the field of inclusive finance," Lee Yuan Siong pointed out. The current core task is no longer simply to increase the number of people covered by the financial system. The central challenge we now face is whether financial resources can be accurately delivered to the areas most in need of support, whether they can enhance the risk resilience of the general public, and whether credit funds can be truly directed towards scenarios that can improve production efficiency. Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are a typical example of this issue: they are the core entities for job creation and innovation, yet a large number of high-quality MSMEs still lack sufficient financial support.
Lee Yuan Siong further discussed that in the process of building a financial system, especially an inclusive financial system, it is essential to ensure fair access to information and eliminate information asymmetry. The entire credit granting process must strictly comply with regulations to strengthen the risk resilience of supply chains, empower productive investment, drive employment growth, and ultimately contribute to sustainable economic development. In this process, technology and data will play a crucial role. We must use data and technology in a compliant and prudent manner: on one hand, relying on them to optimize business decisions and lower financing barriers, while simultaneously strengthening risk control; however, technology cannot replace human final judgment. To make scientific and prudent decisions, it is necessary to use data appropriately and fulfill greater corporate responsibility in areas such as corporate governance, data security, and information transparency.
Lee Yuan Siong proposed that our core responsibility is to find a balance between achieving social value objectives and realizing reasonable commercial returns. Only when financial institutions themselves possess sufficient operational resilience can they have the sustainable capacity to serve clients in the long term.
How can we better address the existing challenges? In Lee Yuan Siong's view, the solution cannot be limited to increasing capital supply and broadening corporate financing channels. It also needs to consider broader issues such as health protection, risk hedging, climate disaster prevention, and various sudden commercial shocks. By assisting residents and enterprises in improving risk management and promoting post-disaster recovery and reconstruction, long-term protection can be provided to market entities, enhancing overall risk resilience and encouraging deeper participation of more entities in the real economy. From this perspective, developing the insurance industry is essentially about strengthening the overall resilience of society.
At the same time, Lee Yuan Siong noted that population aging continues to drive up national health protection needs, while global economic volatility and various risks are becoming increasingly complex. Inclusive finance should not focus solely on assessing financing needs; it must also explore how to provide long-term protection for people's lives and property security. For various measures to be effective, multi-party collaboration is essential, as no single institution can go it alone. Only through multi-party coordination in the field of inclusive finance can long-term sustainable development be achieved. We must both reduce the comprehensive cost of services and accurately match the financial needs of different groups.
He added that policy support is indispensable in this process, with the government playing a key guiding role. Simultaneously, it is necessary to improve public financial infrastructure, leveraging the mature industry experience accumulated by financial institutions and the technological capabilities of innovation platforms to establish long-term, stable trust connections with clients.
"Only by comprehensively integrating and implementing the aforementioned elements can we truly achieve sustainable development goals. Various financial institutions need to identify their own positioning: while persisting in innovation, they must strictly adhere to operational bottom lines, continuously expand service coverage without relaxing risk control standards; they must both assist economic growth and contribute to building risk resilience for the entire society."
Lee Yuan Siong concluded by stating that only by encompassing the above dimensions can inclusive finance better support the development of the real economy and the stability of the financial system.
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