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Lord Mayor roots for Shanghai

By Wang Zhenghua (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-03 14:35

Shanghai is worthy of a place in the world's top 10 financial centers, but must first liberalize its market and recruit highly skilled professionals, to help it achieve its goal, the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman David Lewis, said.

"Shanghai deserves to be in the top 10," Lewis said. "In order for Shanghai to be in the top 10, it is necessary for further liberalization of the market and for it to attract more foreigners to come and work in Shanghai."

The creation of a corporate bond market and a greater willingness to attract more international direct investment into Shanghai, including allowing foreign companies to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, is important, he added.

Shanghai is known for its aspirations of becoming an international financial center, which could rival New York and London.

However, in a recent report compiled by The Global Financial Centers Index, Shanghai ranked 31st and Beijing 46th in the world's top 50 financial centers, while London, New York and Hong Kong occupied the three top spots.

Officials, scholars and company executives in the financial service sectors have pointed out that a talent shortage is one major hurdle in the city's race to the top.

"In order for Shanghai to become a global, as opposed to a regional financial center, it needs to attract more financial expertise, more people to come and work in financial services," Lewis said.

"You have a very good infrastructure, transport and brand name, but a world financial center is not made by buildings. It is made by people and expertise," he added.

One particular area is risk management. Shanghai needs to attract people of different nationalities, including those from London, to work, whether in banks or in universities to deal with this area in finance, Lewis said.

To help with the goal, London and Shanghai will work closely on education and skills training to address Shanghai's thirst for more talented people.

"(The vice-mayor of Shanghai and I) discussed how we could cooperate more in relation to education and skills training because Shanghai needs more financial experts in order to become a global financial center, which we encourage it to do," Lewis said.

The pair also discussed how London could form a partnership with Shanghai in increasing trade, and whether and when it would be possible for foreign companies to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The City of London and Shanghai signed the General Protocol as early as in 1996, followed by a MOU agreed in 2007, which outlines priorities that both cities will continue to work together.