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Historical evolution of foreign exchange management

Before the reform and opening up, China implemented strict centralized foreign exchange planning management, the state implemented unified management of foreign trade and foreign exchange, and implemented mandatory planned management of foreign exchange receipts and payments. All foreign exchange income must be sold to the state, and the use of foreign exchange should be allocated in a planned way; Basically do not borrow foreign debts and do not accept foreign investment in China; The RMB exchange rate is only used as a bookkeeping tool. After the reform and opening up, according to the fundamental requirements of economic and social development and economic system reform, China's foreign exchange management system has changed in the direction of gradually narrowing the mandatory plan and constantly cultivating and enhancing the basic role of market mechanism in allocating foreign exchange resources. After more than 30 years of efforts, a foreign exchange management system has been initially established to meet the requirements of the socialist market economy. Since 1978, the reform of foreign exchange management system has gone through three important stages.

In the first stage (1978- 1993), the reform of foreign exchange management system was initiated. This stage is characterized by strengthening the autonomy of enterprises in foreign exchange and implementing the dual-track exchange rate system. 1978 The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party officially announced that China began to implement the general policy of reform and opening up. In the field of foreign-related economy, the unified foreign exchange revenue and expenditure system has gradually loosened, and export enterprises have begun to have certain foreign exchange autonomy. In order to arouse the enthusiasm of export enterprises to earn foreign exchange and ensure that the limited foreign exchange resources are concentrated on national economic construction, the foreign exchange retention method has been implemented since 1979. While ensuring the centralized management, unified balance and prominent focus of foreign exchange, a certain proportion of foreign exchange shall be reserved for foreign exchange earning places and enterprises, and units holding retained foreign exchange shall be allowed to transfer the surplus foreign exchange quota to units with insufficient foreign exchange. The dual exchange rate system in which the official exchange rate and the market exchange rate coexist. Generally speaking, at present, the foreign exchange management system is in the process of changing from planned system to market regulation, and the planned allocation of foreign exchange resources is still dominant, but the emergence and continuous development of market mechanism has played a positive role in attracting foreign investment, encouraging exports to earn foreign exchange and supporting domestic economic construction.

In the second stage (1994-2000), the framework of foreign exchange management system under the condition of socialist market economy was initially determined. At the beginning of 1994, the state carried out major reforms in the foreign exchange system, abolished the foreign exchange retention system, implemented the bank settlement and sale system, implemented a single and managed floating exchange rate system based on market supply and demand, and established a unified and standardized foreign exchange market. Since then, foreign exchange management system has been further improved. 1996 canceled all restrictions on current international payments and transfers, and realized the current account convertibility of RMB. From 65438 to 0997, the Asian financial crisis broke out, which had a serious impact on China's economic development and financial stability. In order to prevent the further spread of the crisis and maintain the sustained development of the national economy, China made a commitment not to devalue the RMB, and made great efforts to control the capital outflow, successfully resisting the impact of the Asian financial crisis. Generally speaking, at this stage, China has initially established a foreign exchange management system framework suitable for China's national conditions and socialist market economic system, and the market base of foreign exchange supply and demand has been expanding, laying a foundation for the market mechanism to allocate foreign exchange resources.

In the third stage (since 200 1), the foreign exchange management system based on market regulation has been further improved. Since China joined the World Trade Organization at the end of 20001,China has accelerated its integration into the global economy, further expanded its opening to the outside world, maintained a large balance of payments surplus, and exerted increasing influence on the national economy. In order to adapt to the new situation and challenges, deepen the reform of foreign exchange management system, actively promote trade and investment facilitation, steadily promote capital account convertibility, strengthen cross-border capital flow management, improve the statistical monitoring of international payments, and improve the management level of foreign exchange reserves. With the rapid growth of foreign exchange reserves after China's entry into WTO, in 200 1 year, foreign exchange reserve management aims at standardization, specialization and internationalization, establishes investment benchmark management mode and risk management framework, and improves the system and mechanism of large-scale foreign exchange reserve management. The reform of RMB exchange rate formation mechanism initiated in July 2005 has injected new vitality into deepening the reform of foreign exchange management system. It is more convenient for enterprises and individuals to hold and use foreign exchange, and the foreign exchange market is accelerating. At the same time, the way of foreign exchange management has been accelerated from foreign exchange outflow to balanced inflow and outflow management, and the institutional framework of two-way balanced management of capital flows has been gradually established. In the newly revised Regulations on Foreign Exchange Management in 2008, the idea of balanced supervision has been established, and the compulsory settlement and sale of foreign exchange system has been explicitly abolished at the level of administrative regulations. Since the outbreak of the international financial crisis in September 2008, the emergency mechanism has been started in time, and the emergency plan for the reversal of the balance of payments has been formulated to actively guard against financial risks, ensuring the overall safety of foreign exchange reserve assets and resisting the impact of the international financial crisis. Since 2009, in view of the fact that cross-border capital flows are complex and the scale is increasing, and the demand for convenience of market participants is increasing, foreign exchange management has accelerated "five changes" in concept and mode, namely, from re-examination and approval to monitoring and analysis, from pre-engagement supervision to post-event management, from behavior management to subject management, from "guilty assumption" to "innocent assumption" and from "positive list" (except for legal authorization). Generally speaking, at this stage, The reform of the foreign exchange management system has been further deepened, the concept and mode of foreign exchange management have been accelerated, and the role of the market in allocating foreign exchange resources has been continuously enhanced, which has played a positive role in promoting the sustained and rapid development of foreign trade, guiding the orderly two-way flow of capital, making full use of both resources in the two markets and serving the development of the real economy.