British, Chinese bankers look forward to wealth of opportunities
In an era of opening- up in China, the cooperation and development between Beijing Financial Street and the City of London is embracing new opportunities, a senior official said at the Financial Street Forum on Thursday.
Sun Shuo, head of Xicheng district and chief of the Beijing Financial Street Service Bureau, said Beijing is working on building itself into a pilot demonstration area of opening- up in the service sector and establishing a free trade zone, which will both bring precious cooperation opportunities for Beijing Financial Street and the City of London.
“The new round of technological and industrial reform has accelerated the integration of new technology and the finance industry, which has formed new business models and enriched the financial services,” Sun said. “Both China and the United Kingdom believe that financial technology will be a major direction in the industry for the foreseeable future.
“We should cooperate closely in the current global climate,” he said. “In the future, Beijing Financial Street will hold forums and various kinds of events to enhance cooperation and exchanges in financial technology and green financial asset management with its UK counterparts.”
According to Sun, the government is researching possibilities to set up a branch school of Financial Street Education Group in London.
He announced multiple measures of Beijing’s opening- up in the financial sector at the forum, which include tax benefits for foreign financial talents, convenient crossborder financing and investment, and supportive policies to promote international startups in the city.
Beijing has been building its “financial technology zone” in what was a clothes wholesale market in Xicheng district.
At present, 900 high- tech companies and more than 100 financial technology enterprises are located in the zone. Collectively, they have an overall annual revenue of more than 100 billion yuan ($ 15 billion), according to the local government.
“The zone is a combination of Financial Street and Zhongguancun, the capital’s major high- tech area,” he said. “It will become the core and future of the global financial technology industry. Thus, we will strengthen its internationalization via more global communication.”
Sun Yu, vice- governor of Bank of China, said at the forum that financial cooperation is a critical part of China- UK economic and trade cooperation.
“There is a leading international financial center, mature financial system and swift management in the UK while China owns a huge financial market with the biggest green bonds scale and high financial technology acceptance,” he said. “China and the UK will have a wide range of cooperation sectors in green finance and financial technology in the next 10 years.”
William Russell, lord mayor of the City of London, said in a video speech at the forum that they will accelerate cooperation with China on green finance and digital innovation and support companies as well as individuals through innovation and sustainability during this tough period.