Shanghai is pledging to establish a financial system that will fully integrate both foreign and domestic institutions, Feng Guoqin, the city's vice-mayor said yesterday.

"Efforts will be made to attract other financial institutions to Shanghai, making the city an open and fair arena for investors from home and abroad," he told a Financial Planning and Management Seminar held by the British Embassy and China-Britain Business Council.

"We welcome more British financial experts to share your expertise with Shanghai counterparts, and to contribute your ideas to promote Shanghai's role as a financial centre."

Feng said Shanghai should learn from other financial centres' experiences and push forward fair and open trading, with a regulatory and legal framework that upholds international standards.

He went on to say the city will continue to encourage market innovation and liberalization and introduce foreign strategic investors.

"We also encourage local enterprises to list their firms in stock exchanges in the United Kingdom. We also hope more domestic financial institutions go out and reach the international market to share the benefits of globalization," he added.

The internationalization of Shanghai's financial sector is high on city government's agenda, officials noted.

According to the city's economic blueprint, which aims to build Shanghai as an international financial city by 2020, it takes five years to build a solid foundation and another 10 years to establish a framework for it.

This has been China's national strategy since the 1990s. Much have been achieved in the past decade because finance is one of Shanghai's pillar industries. It contributes more than 10 per cent to the city's gross domestic product for nine consecutive years.

A comprehensive market system has also taken shape since Shanghai is home to the stock market, foreign currency exchange, interbank lending market, futures market, gold and diamond exchanges.

"Shanghai plays a supportive role for national economic development," said the vice-mayor.

Shanghai now hosts more foreign financial institutions than any other part of China. Deposits, loans and assets in foreign banks in Shanghai account for more than 50 per cent of the all such accounts in the Chinese mainland.

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