Asian infrastructure investment bank

On Oct 24, up to 21 Asian countries signed a memorandum of understanding on establishing the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), an initiative proposed by Xi in a bid to finance infrastructure projects across Asia.

"China will firmly stick to the opening-up strategy for win-win reciprocity," Xi said. "The establishment of the AIIB will help improve global financial governance, which is very meaningful."

The AIIB should focus on boosting infrastructure inter-connectivity and economic cooperation in the region to inject new momentum into economic development in Asia, Xi added.

Financial opening-up

The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect was launched on Nov 17 to give overseas investors easier access to Shanghai-listed shares, a substantial step forward for the internationalization of the Chinese currency, RMB, and opening-up of the capital market of the Chinese mainland.

On April 10, Premier Li Keqiang told a forum that China will carry out a new round of opening-up at a high level.

China will continue to raise the level and quality of opening-up through deeper integration with the international market, he said.

On Nov 22, China's central bank lifted the upper limit of the floating band of deposit rates to 1.2 times the benchmark rate from 1.1 times, laying a foundation for further liberalization of interest rates.

In March, the central bank announced the widening of the daily yuan trading band from 1 percent to 2 percent and has reduced intervention in the foreign exchange market.

The January-October period this year saw the agreement on renminbi clearing with Britain, Germany, France, South Korea, Canada, Australia, Luxembourg and Qatar, and cross-border renminbi settlement totaled 8 trillion yuan ($1.3 trillion) by the end of October 2014.