Li Jiange, chairman of the Sun Yefang Economic Science Foundation, made a speech at the ceremony held for granting the Sun Yefang Financial Innovation Awards in Beijing on July 3, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Li Jiange, chairman of the Sun Yefang Economic Science Foundation said his agency decided in 2013, when the Sun Yefang Economics Prize, which was considered China's Nobel Prize in the economics sector, had been in place for thirty years, to set up a new award to encourage financial scholars to do more bold explorations. Authors of an award-winning paper can receive 100,000 yuan ($14,995.65), which is shared. The authors of a book can share a 20,000 yuan prize.

The foundation set up another judging committee for financial awards, chaired by Wu Xiaoling, former vice governor of People's Bank of China, the central bank. Funding of the financial awards comes from the China Financial Futures Exchange only.

The awards are given out every two years and submissions for this year's awards included 51 books in Chinese, 69 papers in Chinese and 24 papers in English, according to the judging committee set up at Tsinghua University PBC Finance School.

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