Forty years of life marks half of the journey in the world. It’s a time when people have no doubts and reach the peak of their life and career. So is a country. 
Looking back on the forty years or so of reform and opening up in China, from the “starting gun of reform and opening up” shot by the command post simply established in a container to the “Shekou mode” discovered by China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings, millions of entrepreneurs endured great hardships as pioneers and rose in great vigor to blaze a trial. Those eventful but extraordinary times could still arouse an upsurge of emotion even now. 

Over the forty years or so, China has overcome multiple obstacles in many aspects like politics, economics, law and culture, and created a miracle in human history. It has completed the transformation from an agricultural society to an industrial society and information society, from a planned economy to a market economy and to a globally integrated economy. With such rapid development, China has left an indelible mark in the history of global development. 

Currently, the global economy is evolving towards a dual circulation operation system, one formed between China and developed countries with industrial specialization, trade and investment as the carrier, and the other one formed between China and underdeveloped countries with direct investment and trade as the carrier. As the hub and engine in the system, China reshaped the international order with developed countries as the core while stimulating the steadiness and prosperity of a great many underdeveloped countries, thus leading the global economy to move forward. 

Looking over the world as a whole, the old has passed away while the new is still on the way. As a financial scholar, I feel relieved and comforted, but also concerned about the question of how to carry on the brilliance of China’s economy in the next forty years. This is an essential question that always hovers around the inner heart of each financier who is now standing at the starting point of a new journey. 

Today, after over 40 years, the problems and difficulties for the comprehensive deepening of reform are no smaller than the beginning of reform and opening up. Also, unlike in 1978, the status and value of finance in national economic operations have been fully demonstrated. With the deployment of financial strategies, development of financial technology and constant financial innovation, brand new questions and requirements have been posed upon the research of frontier financial disciplines and cultivation of compound financial talents. 

Accordingly, Fudan International School of Finance was born to respond to the important mission granted by this era. Ever since its establishment, the school has set up the “Three World-class” goal - seeking to become an innovative and influential global academic leader in economic and financial fields, cultivating practical financial talents with broad global vision and strong social responsibility, and dealing with the new patterns and challenges of global finance through innovative research. 

We are all deeply aware that the mission of building a strong country with finance brooks no delay and that the responsibility of moral value establishment and people cultivation takes a heavy burden. We are grateful for the high trust and strong support of all walks of life, and we will remain true to our original aspiration and merit the trust, contributing our whole life to the flourishing of China’s financial business and ceaselessly striving for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people.