According to Zhou, China has set financial risks control as a top priority, and has taken measures to control risks in shadow banking, reduce corporate leverage, and prevent property market overheating in some areas.
With the central government seeking to strictly control the debts of local governments and state-owned enterprises, the policy to prevent debt risks is yielding results, Zhu echoed.
Taimur Baig, chief economist with DBS Bank in Singapore, said at an event held by the Institute of International Finance (IIF), that now everybody is significantly more comfortable about the Chinese government's ability to manage its economy and the financial sector.
INTERNATIONALIZATION OF RMB
It has been one year since the Chinese currency renminbi (RMB), or yuan, was included in the IMF's special drawing rights basket last October, which was a milestone for the global economy and a big step in the internationalization of the RMB.
"Many people say that, you know, after the inclusion of the yuan, yuan use hasn't increased very much, but I think that's too myopic," Rhee said, adding it's not wise to assess the international use of the yuan by just looking at the quarterly data, as the internationalization of the yuan will take time.
Given the size of China's trade and the Chinese economy, "I'm very confident that the yuan's use in the global market will increase," he said, recommending China adopt a gradual approach in capital market liberalization to promote the global use of the yuan.
Markus Rodlauer, deputy director of the Asia Pacific Department at the IMF, also said "there is no doubt in my mind that RMB internationalization will continue over the medium term" as long as China's rebalancing effort continues successfully.
"It will not be a straight line, because like everything else in economics, there will be ups and downs, and we have over the past year, perhaps, witnessed a bit of flattening out of the process," he said.
BELT & ROAD INITIATIVE
China's Ministry of Finance and the World Bank on Thursday held a high-level seminar on the Belt and Road Initiative for the first time during the bank's annual meetings.
As an open and inclusive platform, the initiative could help deepen international cooperation in development and faster economic integration in the region, said Chinese Vice Finance Minister Shi Yaobin.
Cooperation with the World Bank could also mobilize participation of more multilateral development banks, private sectors and other funding sources, and create all-win solutions, he said.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, who is a strong supporter of the initiative, said the bank plans to hold the seminar on the initiative during spring and annual meetings every year so as to discuss how to promote free trade and global growth.
Zhu, who on Thursday attended another seminar on the Belt and Road Initiative co-hosted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, U.S. Center for Global Development, and Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee, said it was the first time he had attended a seminar on the initiative organized entirely by foreign institutions.
This indicated that the international community was paying high attention to the initiative, and had great expectations for its contribution to global economic development, he said.
International financial organizations have recognized the Belt and Road Initiative as "the most important public product in today's world," Zhu added, calling it an important Chinese contribution to global peace and development.
The initiative, proposed by China in 2013, aims to revive the ancient trade routes through an overland Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, to enhance trade, infrastructure and people-to-people connections between Asia, Europe and Africa.
