On April 10th, 2014, Shanghai Institute of Futures and Derivatives (SIFD) and Shandong Normal University (SNU) signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Jinan, Shandong Province. Yang Maijun, President of SIFD, Li Yongjian, Chief and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Finance Office of Shandong Province, Feng Henian, Chief of the Party Committee and Director of Shandong Regulatory Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), Guo Jianlei, Deputy Director of Shandong Provincial Education Department, Shang Zhixiao, Secretary of the Party Committee of SNU, Zhao Yanxiu, President of SNU, and Zhang Yisheng, Executive Chairman of the Strategic Development Committee of SIFD were present at the signing ceremony. Zhang Wenxin, Vice President of SNU, presided over the signing ceremony, and Yang Maijun and Zhao Yanxiu unveiled the SIFD Research Base at SNU.

Shang Zhixiao first made a brief introduction on SNU. He said that SNU, a key university in Shandong Province, has ranked among leading universities in China after over 60 years of development, thus boasting its high influence and reputation. SNU was listed into the first batch of Shandong universities for cultivation of application-oriented talents, and it has been recently listed as one of key co-constructed universities by the Ministry of Education and the Shandong Provincial Government. By taking the opportunity of studying and implementing the requirements put forward at the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee and taking the advantage of the reform, SNU is accelerating its development and promoting its transformation, so as to better serve the social and economic development.

Yang Maijun introduced the construction and development of the Shanghai Futures Exchange and SIFD. He emphasized that the 18th CPC National Congress clearly pointed out the requirement to promote financial innovations and to ensure financial stability, and the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed to fully bring off market’s decisive role in resources allocation, which both required that the capital market (including the futures and derivatives market) should aim at serving the real economy, speed up its development, and expand the width and depth of serving the real economy. And a good futures market cannot be built without reform, opening-up, innovation, as well as supports of research institutes and cultivation of professional talents. SNU, as a key university in Shandong, is therefore an optimal partner for SIFD to realize its strategic goal, and the signing will launch a new stage for their substantive cooperation.

Relevant officials from the Finance Office of Shandong Province, Shandong Regulatory Bureau of the CSRC, and Shandong Provincial Education Department delivered speeches in succession. They respectively introduced the economic development, the financial work, and the educational reform and development of Shandong, and extended their congratulations to the signing.