To build a strong international financial center, we should make efforts to enhance our international influence and continuously expand the breadth and depth of our participation in global economic and financial governance and international financial cooperation.
Building an international financial center is the essence of accelerating the construction of a financial power and an important measure to promote high-level financial opening-up. At the opening ceremony of the seminar on promoting high-quality financial development by major leading cadres at the provincial and ministerial levels, the general secretary profoundly explained the key core financial elements that a financial power should have, one of the important aspects is to have a "strong international financial center".
Influenced by factors such as history and location, international financial centers in different parts of the world have their own characteristics, and Shanghai and Hong Kong also have their own characteristics and advantages. The ** Financial Work Conference held last year clearly proposed: "Enhance the competitiveness and influence of Shanghai as an international financial center, and consolidate and enhance Hong Kong's status as an international financial center." "The construction of Shanghai as an international financial center is a national strategy. Since the beginning of the new era, Shanghai has made steady progress in building an international financial center as a leader in the integration and innovation of finance and technology, a demonstration model for green and low-carbon transformation, and a pilot area for financial risk management and stress testing. Today, Shanghai has basically built itself into an international financial center commensurate with China's economic strength and the international status of the renminbi. With a high degree of internationalization, Hong Kong is an important bridge and window connecting Chinese mainland with the rest of the world, coupled with a good legal environment, a sound financial ecology and sufficient human resources, it has significant advantages. Since its return to the motherland, Hong Kong's financial industry has increasingly demonstrated strong resilience and vitality in terms of its international competitiveness and global influence, and its status as an international financial centre has become more solid.
A strong international financial center tends to produce a strong financial resource agglomeration effect and has a strong ability to allocate financial resources. In Shanghai, the effect of financial resource agglomeration has been further revealed. For example, there is a high concentration of financial institutions, with 47 new licensed financial institutions in Shanghai in 2023, bringing the total number to 1,771. As of the end of 2022, the total scale of the six asset management categories of Shanghai bank wealth management, insurance asset management, trust, securities private asset management, public offering** and private placement** exceeded 359 trillion yuan (excluding ** special account and ** asset management), accounting for more than 28 of the total asset management scale of the country's six major asset management categories4%。As of the end of October 2023, there were more than 350,000 financial employees in Shanghai Pudong New Area, accounting for 89%。Hong Kong is home to the Asian headquarters of many internationally renowned banks, insurance companies, ** companies and other financial institutions, and is also an important global wealth management market. At the end of 2022, Hong Kong had more than US$4 trillion in assets under management,2 3 of which came from markets outside Hong Kong. By making good use of these financial resources and continuously enhancing the attractiveness and allocation of financial resources, the construction of Shanghai and Hong Kong as international financial centers will be able to generate stronger momentum.
A strong international financial center should also form a strong international influence, which is not only reflected in the ability to grasp the pricing power of key financial products, but also reflected in the right to speak in the formulation of major international financial rules and standards. For example, as of the end of last year, there were 32 options on the Shanghai ** Exchange, and the international influence of "Shanghai**", including "Shanghai Oil", "Shanghai Copper" and "Shanghai Gold", has been continuously improved. Another example is the New Development Bank of the BRICS countries, which is based in Shanghai, which is becoming an important platform for emerging economies to participate in the reform of the international financial system. The Shanghai Financial Court has actively optimized the foreign-related financial adjudication mechanism, and the "Shanghai Rules" have had a wide impact. To build a strong international financial center, we should make efforts to enhance our international influence and continuously expand the breadth and depth of our participation in global economic and financial governance and international financial cooperation.
Looking to the future, we will strive to build a strong international financial center, enhance the competitiveness and influence of Shanghai as an international financial center, and consolidate and enhance Hong Kong's status as an international financial center, which will surely provide a strong boost for the realization of high-quality financial development and the acceleration of the construction of a financial power.
The authors are the director of the International Finance Research Office of the Institute of Finance, Development Research Center, and an associate researcher of the Institute of Finance, Development Research Center
People** 2024-02-26 05 Edition).