The 2026 Lujiazui Forum is scheduled for June 17-18, with its theme centered on "Financial Development and Cooperation under the Global Governance Initiative: New Vision, New Challenges, and New Opportunities." Since its inception in 2008, the forum, jointly hosted by China's central financial regulatory authorities and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, has now successfully convened for sixteen sessions.
While last year's forum examined financial openness, cooperation, and high-quality development amidst global economic shifts, this year's edition will focus on strategizing for financial development and cooperation under the framework of the Global Governance Initiative. The aim is to forge a new vision, address emerging challenges, and seize fresh opportunities. In September 2025, China proposed the Global Governance Initiative, outlining five core principles: upholding sovereign equality, adhering to international rule of law, maintaining multilateralism, putting people first, and pursuing practical results. This initiative charts a course for reforming the direction, principles, and pathways of the global governance system.
Rooted in Shanghai with a national perspective and a global outlook, the Lujiazui Forum continues to enhance its appeal and influence within global financial governance.
Platform for Dialogue and Policy Announcement
On one hand, the forum addresses critical domestic and international economic and financial issues, inviting a wide range of stakeholders to exchange information, share insights, and build consensus. It contributes intellectual resources to building China into a financial powerhouse, advancing Shanghai's status as an international financial center, and fostering global financial governance and cooperation. This year, over 70 distinguished guests from various sectors will deliver speeches, including representatives from China's central financial regulators like the People's Bank of China, the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC); overseas financial authorities such as the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Hong Kong Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau; international financial organizations like the World Bank; domestic and international financial markets including the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited; as well as executives from major Chinese financial institutions and prominent foreign financial firms.
Concurrently, China's central financial regulators consistently use the Lujiazui Forum as a platform to announce significant policies and convey authoritative stances, injecting strong momentum into Shanghai's development as an international financial hub. For instance, at the 2025 forum, PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng announced a package of policy measures for Shanghai, including establishing an international digital yuan operations center and setting up a transaction reporting repository for the interbank market. The NFRA, in collaboration with Shanghai, released an action plan to support the city's financial center development, outlining 27 measures across five areas. These measures are currently being implemented progressively, with results gradually becoming apparent. The CSRC introduced a "1+6" policy package to further deepen reforms of the STAR Market. Over the past year, related innovative systems and exemplary cases have been rolled out, with reform effects materializing, leading to enhanced market functionality, active trading, and overall stable operations.
Regulator Commitment to Concrete Action
This year's forum will be co-chaired by the NFRA Administrator and the Mayor of Shanghai. NFRA Administrator Ding Xiangqun will attend the opening ceremony, deliver the opening address, and give a keynote speech.
At a municipal government press conference, Yan Jiao, Deputy Director of the NFRA's General Office, stated that the Lujiazui Forum serves as a frontline window for deepening reform and expanding openness in China's financial sector, an authoritative platform gathering financial wisdom to discuss development, and a crucial link connecting China and the world for synergistic progress and mutual benefit in finance. As a co-host, the NFRA has always attached great importance to and deeply participated in the forum, using it to communicate regulatory direction and address market concerns, which has yielded positive results. Moving forward, the NFRA will continue to enhance coordination between central and local authorities and among different departments, steadily advance financial reform and opening-up, strengthen regulatory guidance, and effectively translate the forum's consensus into practical actions, injecting strong momentum into promoting high-quality development in the industry.
Regarding advancing high-level institutional opening of Shanghai's capital market, which aligns with this year's forum theme, Zhao Guofu, Deputy Director of the CSRC Shanghai Bureau, stated at the press conference that the CSRC will next coordinate efforts to promote high-quality "bringing in" and high-level "going global." It will actively shape a stable, transparent, and predictable regulatory policy environment, systematically plan and introduce more forceful opening-up measures, and steadfastly push capital market opening to deeper and higher levels, continuously strengthening the competitiveness and influence of Shanghai as an international financial center.
Zhou Xiaoquan, Executive Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee's Financial Affairs Office, stated, "Looking towards the 15th Five-Year Plan period, we will accelerate the construction of Shanghai as an international financial center, steadily expand institutional opening in finance, continuously enhance the adaptability, competitiveness, and inclusiveness of the modern financial system, and speed up integration and alignment with international rules and standards. By 2030, the goal is to basically establish Shanghai as a global hub for RMB asset allocation and risk management, laying a solid foundation for building a powerful international financial center by 2035 that matches China's comprehensive national strength and international influence."
Agenda Spanning Global Governance, Capital Markets, and Tech Finance
Currently, the global political and economic landscape is evolving rapidly amidst intertwined international complexities. A new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating breakthroughs, presenting fresh challenges to global financial governance. How can opportunities be found within these challenges, and new paths forged amidst change? This year's Lujiazui Forum, with its theme, aims to pool global wisdom to explore pathways forward and jointly build a new landscape for global financial governance under the Global Governance Initiative.
"The core issue facing global financial governance today is not just cyclical fluctuations, but the redistribution of rules, trust, and development opportunities," commented an academic observer. China's financial system needs to provide more stable and inclusive public goods within global governance. The observer noted that China's participation is not merely about increasing its voice but about promoting rules that better reflect the growth needs of emerging markets and developing countries.
The forum will feature eight plenary sessions. Beyond the main theme, seven specific topics have been set: "Reform and Cooperation in Global Financial Governance," "Establishing and Improving a Well-Functioning Capital Market," "Synergistic Development of Shanghai-Hong Kong Finance Empowering High-Level Financial Opening," "Perfecting the Full Lifecycle Service System for Sci-Tech Finance to Serve High-Quality Development of the Real Economy," "Technological Innovation Empowering High-Quality Financial Development," "Enhancing the Effectiveness and Precision of Inclusive Finance," and "Sustainable Financial Innovation and Cooperation under the Global Governance Framework." These topics cover current hotspots in the economic and financial spheres.
Additionally, this year's forum will host an International Symposium on Financial Law with the topic "Financial Legal Coordination and Rule-Building under the New Global Governance Landscape." A Sci-Tech Finance Conference will also be held, featuring discussions on topics such as "China's Technological Coordinates in the Reshaping Global Industrial Chain," "Chinese Sci-Tech Innovation Going Global, Global Capital Coming to China," and "Multi-Level Capital Markets Boosting New Quality Productive Forces."
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