The Central Economic Work Conference held recently made comprehensive arrangements for economic work in 2026, and clearly proposed to "guide financial institutions to increase support for key areas such as expanding domestic demand, technological innovation, and small and micro enterprises," and emphasized "innovating science and technology financial services" and "promoting the deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation around the development of new productive forces," providing clear guidance and fundamental principles for the financial system to better serve high-quality development.
Against this backdrop, the 29th National Local Finance Cooperation and Exchange Conference was recently held in Lai'an County, Anhui Province. The conference, jointly hosted by the National Local Finance Forum Office, the Lai'an County Party Committee and Government, and the Yangtze River Delta Science and Technology Industry Finance Research Alliance, focused on the theme of "Industry-Talent Integration and Financial Empowerment for High-Quality Development." It brought together over 300 government representatives, financial institution executives, experts, scholars, and media personnel from 21 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions to jointly explore pathways for high-quality development of local finance during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
During the conference, the participants engaged in in-depth discussions from three dimensions: strategic guidance, practical innovation, and ecological synergy. They provided both precise interpretations of macro policies and shared vivid case studies on specific scenarios such as county-level finance, micro and small enterprise services, and technological empowerment, fully demonstrating the responsibility and innovative vitality of local finance in serving the real economy and promoting the development of new productive forces.
Anchoring on "Five Major Tasks" to Build a New Pattern for a Financial Power
The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee put forward clear requirements and made strategic arrangements for accelerating the construction of a strong financial nation during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, providing fundamental guidance for effectively carrying out financial work during this period. Several guests emphasized that local financial institutions must focus on five key areas: technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance, to serve the overall national strategy.
Tang Tang, Vice President of the China Local Finance Research Institute and President of the Local Finance Research Association, stated that this conference, themed "Industry-Talent Integration and Financial Empowerment for High-Quality Development," focuses on the "Five Major Articles" of finance, integrating the advantages of location, talent, and finance to create a training base for industry-education-research collaboration and a science and technology research and development hub in Lai'an. It aims to attract resources from the "Nanjing Circle" and "Hefei Circle," and build a "government-industry-academia-research-finance" ecosystem driven by technology, finance, and industry, thus creating the "Anhui Valley" in Lai'an.
Shu Hongjun, Deputy Secretary of the Lai'an County Party Committee and County Mayor, introduced that Lai'an County is committed to creating an efficient and convenient government environment, a fair and transparent market environment, and a clean and unified government-business environment. It draws on the experience of financial reform and innovation in various places, widely connects with high-quality financial resources, provides fertile ground and broad space for financial capital, and promotes the high-quality and sustainable development of the local economy and finance.
In his speech, Yao Kai, member of the Standing Committee of the Chuzhou Municipal Party Committee and Executive Vice Mayor, said that Chuzhou is a "bridgehead" for the integration of the Yangtze River Delta and a "growth pole" for the rise of eastern Anhui. The high-quality business environment and pragmatic cadre team provide rich scenarios for financial innovation. At the same time, the financial ecosystem continues to be optimized, market entities have high credit ratings, and financial development is more reassuring and secure.
Bai Hao, deputy director of Anhui Provincial Rural Credit Cooperative Union, said that the Anhui Rural Credit System has provided more than 7.8 billion yuan in credit support to micro and small enterprises in Lai'an County and took the lead in issuing the first data asset pledge loan in Chuzhou City. In the future, it will further promote rural revitalization with products such as "Golden Agriculture Entrepreneurship Loan" and "Xingnong e-Loan" and improve the accessibility of inclusive financial services through digital transformation.
Li Lihui, former president of the Bank of China, pointed out that financial reform should focus on serving the real economy, improve the inclusiveness of the capital market, develop direct financing, and solve the "long tail dilemma" of micro and small enterprises through industrial chain finance. Local financial institutions should accelerate resource integration, promote the intensification of rural financial institutions and the centralization of financial technology, and improve service efficiency.
Wu Min, General Manager of the Rural Revitalization Finance Department of China Construction Bank, said that finance in the new era should follow the "five major articles", focus on "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" and the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, rely on multi-party collaboration, uphold the concepts of integration, ecology and credit, and use digital technology to empower risk prevention and control upgrades to help rural revitalization.
Gong Minghua of the China Insurance Society pointed out that the digital development of the banking and insurance industries faces challenges such as data security, risk control, and talent. It is necessary to cultivate high-quality, multi-skilled talents by fostering financial ethics, improving digital literacy, and deepening the integration of industry and education.
Researcher Yang Tao from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences looks ahead to the trend of digital finance during the 15th Five-Year Plan period from a policy perspective. He points out that a number of national policies provide institutional guarantees for financial institutions' investment in technology, and local financial institutions need to grasp the policy direction and find the digital breakthrough point in regional characteristic scenarios.
Zhou Daishu, associate researcher at the China Academy of Science and Technology for Development Strategy, believes that science and technology finance is the leader of the "five major tasks" and should aim to serve high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strengthening, adhere to the principle of giving equal importance to direct and indirect financing, and focus on major scientific and technological tasks and technology-based enterprises.
Party building leadership + technology empowerment create a new model for county-level finance
The conference highlighted the vivid practices of local financial institutions in integrating Party building with economic development, product innovation, and digital transformation, demonstrating their original mission of "serving the people and the real economy through finance".
Shen Daokuan, chairman of Lai'an Rural Commercial Bank, introduced that the bank takes Party building as its guiding principle, selects 130 customer managers to be stationed in villages, and achieves a credit coverage rate of 99.5% for the whole village. It has also established 96 "Jin Nong Xin e-Home" stores. At the same time, it has innovated products such as "Investment and Production Joy" and "Green Engineering Loan" to help enterprises grow and deeply integrate into the construction of the Yangtze River Delta integrated functional area.
Zhang Yuanfang, deputy general manager of Ant Group's Digital Ant Force, pointed out that Ant Smart Services integrates AI with business processes to launch services such as intelligent repayment and risk control assistant. Through the human-machine integration model, it helps partner banks reduce the post-loan supervision complaint rate by more than 20%. The core lies in the discovery of scenario pain points and the cultivation of industry and finance talents.
Zhu Xianju, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Yulin Urban District Credit Union, shared the experience of the "1+N" Party building co-construction ecosystem. Through joint construction by government and banks, banks and enterprises, and banks and villages, they have launched distinctive credit products and served key industrial clusters, granting credit to villages totaling over 937 million yuan, thus bridging the "last mile" in serving the real economy.
Yang Jiashou, a member of the Standing Committee of the Yongren County Committee of the CPC and Executive Deputy County Head, said that the county will adhere to the leadership of the Party, promote the construction of the social credit system, complete the filing of 24,400 rural households and achieve full coverage of credit townships; and establish a diversified dispute resolution mechanism for financial disputes to safeguard the order of the financial market and the rights and interests of the parties involved.
Zhang Zhanghai, former president of Jiaxing Bank, explained the "Nanhu Credit Score" model, which relies on the government's big data platform to achieve automatic approval of personal consumer loans; in the field of science and technology finance, the bank launched the "deferred interest payment + stock option" product, created the "Science and Technology Innovation·Jiaxing" comprehensive service platform, and promoted the integration of government, banks, industry, academia, research and application.
Song Yingmin, Vice President of Dehong Rural Commercial Bank, focused on the integration of "online + offline" services, embedding smart payment collection into daily life scenarios and using big data to push products in a tiered manner, thus achieving a shift from "passive waiting" to "proactive customer acquisition." In addition, Tengchong Rural Commercial Bank, Wuhe Rural Commercial Bank, Jinzhai Rural Commercial Bank, Wuwei Rural Commercial Bank, and Tongcheng Rural Commercial Bank also shared their innovative practices tailored to local conditions, jointly painting a vibrant picture of local financial services supporting the county economy.
Building an integrated system of government, industry, academia, research, and finance to activate new productivity
The experts at the meeting unanimously agreed that high-quality development cannot be separated from a virtuous cycle of science and technology, industry, and finance, and that it is necessary to break down barriers and build a multi-party collaborative innovation ecosystem.
Meng Tian, executive vice chairman of the Yangtze River Delta Science and Technology Industry Finance Research Alliance, pointed out that Shanghai has established the "Science and Technology Innovation Finance Alliance" and launched a 15 billion yuan "Future Industry Fund" and the "Shanghai Science and Technology Points Loan" model, which uses innovation points to assess the "future prospects" of science and technology innovation enterprises.
Li Wei, Vice President of Suzhou Bank, proposed the "GOAI" science and technology innovation financial ecosystem strategy, which links the government, industrial parks, and intermediary institutions to create a comprehensive financial platform that integrates investment, lending, debt, and leasing, and promotes efficient matching of capital and projects through roadshow branding.
Tian Li, director of the Handan Future Industry Research Institute, called on local financial institutions to establish regular cooperation with research institutes, develop products such as "intellectual property pledge loans," set up risk-sharing funds, and support future industries to move from the laboratory to the market.
Wei Xinjiang, head of China Life's Yunnan Elderly Care Center, proposed the "inclusive elderly care" sub-sector, advocating a small-scale nursing home model and exploring the integration of policy-based finance and commercial insurance in rural elderly care scenarios.
Wu Long, president of Zuncai Gold Industry Research Institute, suggested that local financial institutions can leverage precious metal finance to achieve differentiated breakthroughs, develop "traceable gold" and "intangible cultural heritage creative gold" in combination with regional characteristics, and transform business growth engines through intelligent risk control and precise marketing based on government data.
Representatives from Lushan County, including Deputy County Head Wang Xiaoping and Chairman of Tianchang Rural Commercial Bank Li Kui, showcased a deep integration model of "finance + industry": the former provides support to local specialty industries through more than 20 distinctive credit products, while the latter connects the instrument and cable industry chain with "order loans" and "talent loans," with credit lines exceeding 6.2 billion yuan.
The convening of this conference has pointed out a clear path for the high-quality development of local finance. The participants unanimously agreed that local financial institutions must uphold the political and people-oriented nature of financial work, strengthen the downward extension of inclusive finance under the guidance of Party building, accelerate digital transformation with the support of technology, and build a collaborative ecosystem oriented towards industry. Through the deep integration of industry and talent with financial innovation, they can provide a more solid financial guarantee for county economic development, comprehensive rural revitalization, and the cultivation of new productive forces.
