The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday announced it had opened a new regional centre in Shanghai to further strengthen its engagement and partnership in the Asia-Pacific region.

The opening was announced on the first day of the two-day annual Lujiazui financial forum in the mainland’s financial hub.

In a statement, the IMF said the new centre “will serve as a hub to promote research that can inform policies in areas of interest to emerging market and middle-income countries”.

“It will help deepen the IMF’s dialogue with member countries and other stakeholders in the region, including international financial institutions, academics, think-tanks, CSOs, and the private sector,” the statement read.

In addition, it said the new establishment would facilitate targeted capacity-building in the region, including via peer-to-peer learning, in collaboration with the China IMF Capacity Development Centre (CICDC).

It also expressed gratitude to China’s central bank for its generous financial support to its Shanghai Regional Centre.

Speaking at the centre’s launch ceremony, Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the People’s Bank of China, said he welcomed the new establishment in Shanghai.

“We believe the Shanghai Regional Centre will deepen cooperation between the IMF and China, enhance macroeconomic policy exchange and coordination among the Asia Pacific countries, and support regional and global financial stability,” Pan said.

Echoing Pan, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said at the same event that the Shanghai centre “will deepen understanding of perspectives from member countries, and foster international economic cooperation”.

The opening of the new centre came after the IMF earlier upgraded its estimate for China’s economic growth for this year from 4.6 percent to five percent last month, putting its projections in line with Beijing’s full-year growth estimate at around five percent.