Making Shanghai a global financial centre

By Sun Lijian (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-21 14:26

Since Shanghai launched its effort to build itself into an international financial centre in 1992, it has made significant achievements despite all the pressures and difficulties of the process.

Shanghai has yet to gain a more substantial position in the global financial network, however. And more challenges can be expected in the coming days.

While Shanghai spends a huge amount of resources on building an international financial centre, many regions around the world are making similar efforts by offering open market and high-end financial services. Would Shanghai gain an upper hand in the competition? Would its efforts attract the target clients successfully?

Before trying to find conclusive answers to these questions, it is reasonable to review a theoretical starting point.

An international financial centre can only be forged by the market. The government can facilitate the process by offering better administrative mechanisms, rather than trying to influence or even control the process that should be dominated by the market. Otherwise, it would only destroy the evolution of the centre.

A global financial centre serves as a hub where financial resources can be reallocated with high efficiency. All Shanghai's efforts should be aimed at assisting the financial resource reallocation, no matter how many challenges it faces.

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