Futures industry opening can build on 'Belt and Road' initiative

The opening of China's futures industry to the global market could ride the wave of the nation's push for implementing the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, Yang Maijun, chairman of the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), said on Tuesday.

The grandiose vision for building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road was laid out by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, and has increasingly been considered a strategic initiative that will expand the nation's commercial ties to much of Eurasia.

The Southeast Asian countries along the route of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road which possess significant natural resources such as nonferrous metals and rubber are in need of the establishment of a futures market, while China has accumulated experience in its futures development, laying the groundwork for a possible regional partnership, Yang, also a deputy to the National People's Congress, told the Global Times on the sidelines of a news conference.[Special coverage]

Definite implementation plans have yet to be formulated, he stated.

As part of SHFE's efforts to integrate the domestic futures sector with the world market, the launch of China's first crude-oil futures contract is expected this year, Yang also revealed at the news conference on Tuesday.

Stating that he hopes the crude-oil futures contract can be denominated in the yuan, Yang did not give a timetable for the contract's availability.

Predicting that the contract would hit the market in May, Han Jingyuan, a senior oil product analyst at Beijing-based energy information provider JYD Commodities Hub, remarked that the addition of the crude oil futures to the nation's energy futures structure would serve to steer the tightly controlled domestic oil market toward being more market-oriented.

But the introduction of the contract is unlikely to help enhance China's bargaining power in international oil pricing due to its substantial reliance on oil imports, Han told the Global Times Tuesday.