Dear faculty, staff and students,
Good evening!
Welcome to joining Tsinghua PBCSF graduation ceremony 2021. Looking back at this time of last year, due to the outbreak of covid-19, the 2020 graduates were pitifully unable to return for physical gathering, and shared their farewell and best wishes over the cloud. The reunion today is precious and comes from hard work. Since the joint effort of the Party and the people, notable progress is achieved in fighting against covid-19, allowing us to return to campus for on-site gathering. In this beautiful dusk of mid-summer, the season of Wisteria, we jauntily host this farewell party at Tsinghua PBCSF.
Graduation is one of the highlights and most honorable time in life, marking a successfully ending of student life. On behalf of the Tsinghua University PBC School of Finance, please allow me to congratulate you all warmly and heartedly on your achievements, and also extend my sincere thankfulness to all the hardworking PBCSF faculty and staff!
At the time of graduation, there are always mixed feelings, both excitement and sentimental. From 40 years of reform and opening up to the golden age nowadays, the graduates of Tsinghua PBCSF are enjoying a higher starting line, a broader vision, superior conditions and stronger personal beliefs. As the dean of the Tsinghua PBCSF, I would like to entrust you with the school’s best wishes and hopes, and cheer for your new voyage. As a member of alumni, it has been 30 years since my graduation, where my then experience may seem a little overdue. For the successful graduates of EMBA, CEO and EE classes, who have made notable achievements in their own field, I also may not be in the position to give much ramblings. But we do have much in common - there was always the time when we all pursued truth and knowledge here at Tsinghua PBCSF, where we were obsessed with frontier and cutting edge researches; where we studied with eagerness; and where we fought for our dreams with theories and practical solutions we learned. At this time of graduation, there are a few heartfelt words I would like to share with you.
First: Hold on to your beliefs, before you can go far. 100 years ago, the then president of Fudan University CHEN Wangdao finished the first full Chinese translation of The Communist Manifesto, guiding and aspiring Chinese people to build the country and work for the nation's prosperity. 100 years later, while stepping into the new era, the young generations should hold their strong belief through learning, thinking, practice and comprehension, making efforts to contribute to the achievement of “Chinese Dream” and national prosperity. We should learn from the history of the CPC development, reform and opening up, as well as the development of Communism, to gain wisdom and strength to step ahead. In dialog with the history, our belief and confidence grows and are strengthened. No matter how farther away we go, how prosperous the future is, we should not forget what we have been through, where and why we started.
Looking back at past two years, in the face of outbreak of covid-19, we acutely observed the difference in fighting the pandemic at home and abroad. The special yet common experience strengthens our belief in our nation.
Looking back at the last 43 years, reform and opening up has brought a leap forward improvement in people’s welfare. China has become the second largest economy, despite Asian financial crisis, and global financial crisis. The challenges make us more confident and mannered.
Looking back at last 72 years, since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the history shows that only socialism is the way for China. Through reform and opening up, and upright innovation, China is making its contribution to the world in its own way.
Looking back at the last 100 years, from a distressed and miserable nation to a nation with prosperous future, the CPC demonstrates a vivid historic lesson of leading the nation to reform and opening, and to develop.
May the graduates from Tsinghua PBCSF will hold to your belief and make your efforts to the national development.
Second, hold on to your dream, and make your best efforts. For a certain period of time, in the face of surviving pressure and anxiety, many young people are longing for free choices, right to refuse, easy exit, and chances to be accepted by the community. And they are most commonly labeled for “peer pressure”, “numbness”, “insensitive” and etc. In fact, in exploration of the unknown, difficulties are very common. The means of life just lies in the consistent effort to explore and thrive. Every darkest moment of life is the prelude of progress.
Never put a limit on your life. Whatever your family background, age, specialty, external environment are, it is never the restrain to your steps along the way. The only restrain comes from one's mind. Life is unstoppable without the retrain in your mind.
Only to connect your dream along with the national development, can one make notable achievements. And we are proud to acclaim that we are advancing with “Chinese Dream”. We are witnessing China's development, and grow through the difficulties and challenges along the way. May the passion for your dream be the motivation to proceed. I believe most of you are straight A students. But I think it is more important that you could keep a curious heart, and hold on to your passion for the knowledge, only by which, you could make further progress. I hope you would keep your habit of continuous study and thinking, be hardworking, and pursues a high life altitude.
Third, always have respect in your heart, and behave with high ethical standard. While finance is the core competence of a nation, financial system is the key instrument for resource allocation and distribution. The dispensation and scarcity of the financial resources always leads to severe competition and easy to breed corruption. In the history of world’s financial development, corruption always shadows the financial development. While systematic defect further stimulates financial development, the phenomenon of “money never sleeps” exposes the greedy side of human nature.
Tsinghua PBCSF is born for financial reform, and grows with China’s financial development. Most of the graduates will be taking careers in the financial institutions or financial administration. It has rang the bell that there is growing trend where corruptions in the financial field happens more often among the people of younger age and higher education. At the time of graduation, let us hold it for warning that whatever and whenever the conditions are, we should always know what one could do, and what one should not. Only when holding “respect” in heart, one can always have prudential and self-discipline. When facing temptations, we should always keep the laws in mind, guard our moral standards and the ethical expectation, and be devoted to our duty.
Looking back at 40 years of China’s financial development, from planned to market economy, from closed down to opening up, from single dimension to multi-dimension... we are always walking on a winding road, where Tsinghua PBCSF graduates’ effort can always be seen along the way. The Tsinghua PBCSF students have been playing key roles in China’s financial development.
It has always been a tradition for Tsinghua PBCSF graduates to contribute to the national development, and wish you will carry the tradition further on.
With the challenge of epidemic, China is seeking development in the world full of uncertainties. To China, the most priority is still the full and high level reform and opening up. The reform and opening up motivates the development of China’s financial development. As the engine of modern economy, only when it is more open and dynamic, can finance better serves the economic development in China. Study shows that, due to the shock of the pandemic, when China’s economy suffers the most difficulty and rapid decline, there are two industry that positively support the economy: information technology and finance. Statistics also shows that, the financing provided by finance industry to micro, small and medium size enterprises exceeds 6 trillion (RMB). The banking industry reduces fees for small and medium-sized enterprises by as much as 1.5 trillion (RMB). In recent years, the informationized and digitization of the financial industry has also shown its strong strength during the epidemic crisis. The level of digitization in China's financial industry, especially the digital infrastructure and digital financial services, has ranked among the top in the world; the epidemic crisis did not stop the marketization reform of China's financial industry and the pace of opening up. While the marketization of interest rate and exchange rate continues to advance, the improvement of China's stock market in terms of infrastructure and institutional environment has greatly strengthened the capital market's support for the real economy during the epidemic; the policy strength of macro-control and monetary policy also reflects China's financial strength.
The hardest time of fighting pandemic has past. China’s financial industry is showing more vitality. Under the dual circulation, with the markitization and digitalization innovation, China’s finance industry is facing new structural development and upgrade. It is of heavy task in research and practice in future finance. At the time of complexity and innovation, it is the mission of Tsinghua PBCSF to explore the theory and practice of economic and financial development framework.
Dear fellow students, no matter what you are devoted to do, either in practice or researches, please keep in mind the tradition of Tsinghua PBCSF “endeavor, innovation, harmony, contribution”, and make your own contributions to the China's financial development.
Tsinghua PBCSF is always here to support and watch out for you. To finish my speech, please allow me to quote from the founding member of the CPC, LI Dazhao, “there are many times that you are on your own. But most of the time, you have us.”
Thank you!
