金泰妍why音悦台:Shanghai rising as a global financial hub

来源：百度文库编辑：九乡新闻网时间：2024/04/28 01:02:13

Shanghai rising as a global financial hub

10:16, July 09, 2011

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A couple hug at the Bund, a famous tourist destination, in Shanghai, east China, March 15, 2011. (Xinhua File Photo)

A city's charm usually lies in its history or its being new and different. Shanghai, unlike many other cities, is endowed with both a unique past and dynamic contemporary scene.

Shanghai was known as the "Paris of the East" in the 1920s and 1930s for its beautiful European-style architecture and prevalence of Western fashion and lifestyles. Now it's China's financial hub with countless skyscrapers as well as throngs of bankers and businessmen from around the globe.

A latest released global financial center ranking lists Shanghai as the sixth most competitive financial center in the world, up from the eighth last year.

The city comes after New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore this year, according to the Xinhua-Dow Jones International Financial Centers Development Index (IFCD Index) issued Friday.

The index is based on a comprehensive valuation of 45 international financial centers.

According to a report released with the index, the ranking rise of Shanghai shows "strong growth momentum while displaying stability -- a necessary condition for a mature financial center, which indicates that there were more financial factors flowing into the city in the past year, giving it greater confidence to compete with financial centers of the Europe and the U.S. in the future."

RAPID DEVELOPMENT

Shanghai's stock market, 21 years old, lists 894 companies with a combined market value of more than 18 trillion yuan (2.77 trillion U.S. dollars), the sixth largest in the world. Many mainland companies are waiting to be listed on the market.

However, back in 1990, there were only shares of eight companies traded on the bourse.

On Nov. 18, 1984, Shanghai Feilo Acoustics Co. issued its initial public offering of 10,000 shares, at 50 yuan per share. It was the first of its kind on the Chinese mainland.
Two years later, China's first stock exchange counter, measuring no more than 10 square meters, opened to the public in Shanghai.

Maybe no one knows the early days better than Yang Huaiding, who is known to many Chinese as "Millionaire Yang" for his legendary success back in the 1990s in the newly opened Chinese stock market.

Yang, one of the earliest individual investors in China, was originally a wage earner with a monthly salary of 53 yuan. He started to invest in stocks after making his "first bucket of gold" through treasury-bond trades.

The 61-year-old man recalls how nervous he was at the time, worrying that he might be labeled a "speculator" or a "profiteer." At that time, stock investment was still viewed by many as speculation while laboring with one's hands to earn money was considered honorable.

In view of the early success of people like Yang, more people started playing China's stock markets.

According to the China Securities Depositories and Clearing Corp., the number of stock-trading accounts in China has exceeded 150 million. It means nearly one out of 10 people in China have a stock-trading account.

BIG EDGES, CHALLENGES

A growing stock market is not the only criteria to qualify Shanghai for a global financial hub. It also takes financial infrastructure, talents and investor confidence.

The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, set up its Shanghai head office in 2005, which it said "is crucial to promote the construction of an international financial center in Shanghai."

Although all China's key economic policy makers are based in Beijing, Shanghai is home to most of the country's major financial markets, including the China Foreign Exchange Trading System, an interbank market, Shanghai Futures Exchange, the country's largest commodities exchange, and China Financial Futures Exchange, the country's only such futures market.

Given the size of China's population, economy as well as its fast growth, many of these financial markets are among the world's biggest in terms of transaction volume.P These markets, together with the influx of foreign banks, mean that Shanghai is well on its way to become one of the world's leading financial centers, analysts have said.

Meanwhile, the gathering of international talents helps boost Shanghai's international financial center ambition, said Jens Henriksson, president of the Nasdaq OMX's Stockholm Stock Exchange.

As of the end of May, 332 transnational enterprises had established their regional headquarters in Shanghai and at least 325 foreign-funded research and development centers were set up in the metropolis.

International financial service giants such as Citigroup, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America have all established their China headquarters in Shanghai.

Support from the central government has helped boost Shanghai's economy.

In March 2009, the Chinese government announced plans to build Shanghai into an international financial and shipping center in line with the country's economic strength and the international status of its currency by 2020.

The scheme includes developing a multi-functional and multi-layer financial market in Shanghai, and trial program for cross-border yuan trade settlement.

The city intends to keep pushing forward on many fronts.

One key development will be the launch of the Shanghai stock exchange's international board, which China Securities Regulatory Commission chairman Shang Fulin said is "coming closer and closer."

The board will allow overseas companies to raise funds by listing yuan-denominated shares in China.

However, economists warn that many problems must be solved before Shanghai can overtake New York and London to become the world's largest financial center.

"Shanghai is still some way behind other international financial centers in terms of market openness, size and variety, as well as sophistication of products," according to a KPMG report.

It noted that China needs to open its financial markets further, which will include "full currency convertibility and opening up of yuan-denominated A-shares to foreign investors."

Shanghai will become the world's largest financial center in a decade, according to the report.

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