Global financial center takes shape in Shanghai

Shanghai is making further progress toward becoming an international financial center, and the Shanghai free trade zone is a major player in the city’s ambitious drive.

Hang Yingwei, head of the Pudong New Area and executive deputy director of the Shanghai FTZ, said yesterday that the FTZ was accelerating the construction of a global asset management center.

"The FTZ will further agglomerate global asset management institutions and professional subsidiaries of various licensed financial institutions to promote the opening-up and innovation of the foreign capital management business," he said on the sidelines of the annual legislative session in Beijing.

Hang disclosed that a 5-billion-yuan (US$745 million) fund will be set up this year to serve the real economy, particularly in key sectors, to further promote the "China chips, innovative drugs, aviation dream and intelligent manufacturing" concept.

Additionally, the Shanghai FTZ will improve its ability to allocate global resources and accelerate deep integration and further development in the fields of economy, finance, trade, shipping, and scientific and technological innovation, Hang added.

He also vowed to push ahead with moves to lure a clutch of pioneering foreign investment projects to the FTZ.

“We will deepen the opening-up of key areas such as telecommunications, education, health care, culture and finance.”

He also pledged to accelerate the establishment of a supply center to serve the capital market of the Yangtze River Delta and give the Shanghai FTZ full play in its role as the bridgehead of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Also yesterday, it was the first day of the first semester at the IfFP Swiss Wealth Management Professional Training Center — the first foreign-funded financial training institute on the Chinese mainland. Students sit in a classroom at the center in Shanghai as a teacher from Switzerland shares with them proven practices in wealth management.

The center in the city's FTZ was granted approval last September. Its parent, Zurich-based Institute for Financial Planning, was established in 1995.

Jessica Zhong, CEO of the training center, said China's wealth management market is huge and the "Shanghai free trade zone has opened a door for us".

According to Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2018, China's total household wealth exceeded US$50 trillion, surpassing Japan for the first time and ranking second, behind the United States, in the global wealth list. Over the next five years, China's wealth will grow further by US$23 trillion, accounting for 19 percent of global wealth by 2023, the report said.

Felix Horlacher, CEO of IfFP, expressed his confidence over Shanghai's further opening-up in the financial sector, particularly after the FTZ administrative committee unveiled 25 measures, across six key sectors, to refine the level of related services and incentives on offer within the FTZ.

Horlacher emphasized that the center has combined proven useful experience from Switzerland with local practices to make the course down to earth and easy to understand for students.

In the past year, China has had an additional 640 super high-net-worth adults, ranking second in the world in total number. Hence, there is a growing demand for wealth management experts.