On 14 November, 2019, a scholarship award ceremony of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (China) Limited (“SMBCCN”) and theme lecture was held at the PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University (“Tsinghua PBCSF”). Wang Zhengwei, Associate Dean of Tsinghua PBCSF, Shinji Ono, Chairman of the Board of SMBCCN and Yoshimasa Moriguchi, General Manager of the Financial Research Department of SMBC, among other guests, attended the event. Yuan Yuan, Assistant Dean of Tsinghua PBCSF hosted the event.

Mr. Wang Zhengwei addressing the event

Mr. Wang Zhengwei addressed the ceremony. He expressed that Tsinghua PBCSF and SMBC has a time-honored history of cooperation in talent cultivation. The bank has so far held 12 expert lectures on the development of Japan’s economy and financial sector to the faculty and students of Tsinghua PBCSF since 2001. SMBC created a scholarship at Tsinghua PBCSF in 2016, which has been awarded to a total of 16 students to date.

Shinji Ono making a speech

Then Mr. Shinji Ono delivered a speech. He made a comprehensive review of the cooperation between the two sides, and expressed fine expectations for future cooperation and students’ growth. Mr. Wang Zhengwei and Mr. Shinji Ono jointly awarded the Scholarship certificates to five students who won the scholarship this year, and encouraged them to continuously work hard to become future financial talents fulfill their dreams.

A group photo of Wang Zhengwei (fourth from left), Shinji Ono (fifth from left) and scholarship winners

Following the ceremony, Yoshimasa Moriguchi, General Manager of the Financial Research Department of SMBC, delivered a lecture themed “Japan’s Efforts and Experiences in Addressing the Financing Difficulty of SMEs”. In his lecture, Yoshimasa Moriguchi introduced the measures Japan adopted to support the development of SMEs from positioning and development of Japan’s SMEs, financial policies for SMEs during financial crises and the measures taken by SMBC, as well as offered his suggestions based on the actual situation of SMEs in China.

Yoshimasa Moriguchi giving a speech

He indicated that SMEs, of a relatively small scale though, have played a very crucial role in the steady development of the Japanese economy and society. However, Japanese SMEs are also increasingly beset by such issues as a shrinking number and aging. Yoshimasa Moriguchi went on to describe in detail Japan’s financial policies for SMEs during the Asian and the global financial crisis , including expanding the credit enhancement system, increasing financing of financial institutions controlled by the government, boosting the proprietary capital of financial institutions through public finance, strengthening the closely-knit financial function of regional financial institutions, and flexibly modifying loan conditions according to the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Financing Facilitation Act.

Moreover, he also analyzed the evolution of Japan’s policies for SMEs and the priorities of the ongoing one. He expressed that China has implemented a raft of measures to support SMEs, and hoped Japan’s experiences can be of some use to boosting China’s SME-supporting policies.

During the Q&A session, Yoshimasa Moriguchi and Shinji Ono exchanged ideas and discussed with the audience over such topics as the comparison of characteristics of Japan’s and US’s policies for SMEs, further cooperation between Chinese and Japanese financial institutions and high-tech enterprises, and trade frictions.

A scene of the lecture