| CBD has a specific requirement for financial enterprises and Beijing CBD actively plays financ end. |
| 1/15/2004 14:40:45 |
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The financial enterprises and CBD enjoy a relationship of mutual requirement and long-term development. CBD has a specific requirement for the financial enterprises. Because the financial service industry is an important component of CBD, without financial enterprises, the structure of the CBD will probably not be so integrated,¡± said by Wang Peng, general manager of Operation and Development Department of Beijing CBD Development & Construction Co., Ltd.
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Some time ago, it was spread fast that Beijing was planning to build a second international financial center of China. What enabled Beijing to contend with Shanghai on the position of international financial center are Financial Street and the finance industry group of CBD. Furthermore, what has something related to this is that Beijing CBD has always emphasized on the importance of finance to CBD for the recent years. On the 4th Beijing Chaoyang International Business Festival ended not long ago, there was no signing activity (ceremony) of contracts of a large amount sum taken place on the previous festivals, but this festival brightly played ¡°financial service¡± for its own end.
¡¡¡¡The ¡°zeal¡± of Beijing on financial service industry and even financial center is not a groundless rumor. In March of this year, it was released on Beijing Municipality Symposium on Financial Work that the concerned departments of Beijing were beginning to improve the financial environment of Beijing through some measures such as establishing Beijing Bill Business Market, strengthening the management on the securities and futures market, encouraging the foreign-owned insurance enterprises to establish institutions in Beijing, etc. In September, Wang Qishan, acting mayor of Beijing with a profound financial background released on a governmental meeting of Beijing that one of his two focuses of his future work is to develop the finance industry of Beijing.
¡¡¡¡Therefore, on October 9, Chen Gang, acting director of Chaoyang District declared an accessory policy on accelerating the development of the finance industry of Beijing CBD, which was so conspicuous and also the only policy measure introduced by the Chaoyang International Business District.
¡¡¡¡The contents of this policy include reducing the operational cost of the financial institutions, building financial safe area, strengthening services for and communication with the financial institutions and providing a good external environment for the financial institutions. Chen Gang announced to establish a ¡°Special Fund for Financial Development of Chaoyang District¡±, the 70% annual accruement of the fund will be used for providing subsidies of house purchase (lease) for new financial institutions to offices in CBD, the 20% for supporting the development of the financial institutions with outstanding contribution to the district and the other 10% for rewarding the organizations and individuals introducing the domestic and foreign famous financial institutions into the district.
¡¡¡¡Since the financial revenue at the district level occurs, the new financial institutions to set offices in CBD, the 80% of the total financial revenue contributed to the district of the first 3 years will be taken as the main source of the ¡°Special Fund¡± for financial service. At the meantime, the district finance will provide 10 million RMB as the starting fund. Chen Gang also made a point to build a CBD financial safe area, strengthen the service for and communication with the financial institutions, perfect the accessory system for the development of the financial institutions and provide a good external environment for the financial institutions. It was also learnt that in order to cooperate with the implementation of CEPA, Beijing CBD would issue new policies to actively support the medium and small-size banks of Hong Kong to set their offices in CBD.
¡¡¡¡At the same time, Beijing CBD Administration Commission has also established a consultative group for financial development, which was consisted of 17 domestic and foreign famous financial experts and scholars, including Liu Hongru, the first chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission, Zhang Shengman, executive deputy president of the World Bank, Hu Zuliu, director and general manager of Goldman Sachs Asia, Li Yang, director of Financial Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, etc. The main function of the group is to participate in financial decision-making of the government and provide consultation on financial policies.
¡¡¡¡However, Tong Yuan, an insider of real estate industry, expressed his confusion about the actual attraction of Beijing CBD on finance industry. He said the current convergent situation of the financial institutions in Beijing is that Chinese-owned banks mostly choose Financial Street, while the foreign-owned banks mostly choose Jianguomen. The former area is the location of State Financial Supervision Center, headquarters of national banks, and headquarters of non-financial institutions, while the latter area congregates the world-level financial institutions such as First National City Bank, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and so on. The change of the status quo will not cost one day. What is noteworthy, some financial institutions and listed companies are planning to move their headquarters out of Beijing. It is informed that among the more than 300 listed companies in Beijing controlled by personages of the business circles, there are only over 30 companies are operating in Beijing area, but more companies locate their operation centers in other areas out of Beijing.
¡¡¡¡Tong Yuan believed, at least from the point of today, Beijing CBD is still in lack of a structure highly concentrated with activities of finance, trade, information and business office in big cities. In addition, the urban comprehensive economic activities of the accessory facilities for shopping, entertainment and service cannot form a core district in a short period. Those two factors will become barriers for Beijing CBD to develop financial service industry. Though it is the directions for the effort of Beijing CBD, there will be still a long time to form a thermal polymerization effect of the finance industry in this area.
¡¡¡¡However, Wang Peng believed that the advantages for Beijing to build financial center are very obvious: Beijing is not only the birthplace of financial control policies, but also the location of headquarters of many financial institutions; after China¡¯s entrance to WTO, as a bridge of communications between the foreign enterprises and the government, Beijing possesses a special position and advantage that cannot be replaced by any other cities in the field of attracting foreign-owned enterprises to settle here. As long as we can break through the bottleneck of soft and hard environment, the attraction of Beijing CBD for the finance industry should not be neglected.
¡¡¡¡On October 10, Fan Boyuan, vice mayor of Beijing, set a tone for the financial service industry of Beijing CBD. He said that after several years¡¯ planning and construction, the number of enterprises set offices in Beijing CBD has reached 3000, among which there are more than 800 Chinese-foreign joint ventures and over 100 foreign-owned financial and insurance institutions. CBD has preliminarily formed an industry structure led by finance industry and dominated with industries of finance, insurance, securities, consultation and agency and IT communication. As a result, CBD has become a prior area for transnational enterprises, especially for the enterprises of World Top 500, to enter Beijing. With a rich business atmosphere, this district gets together nearly 100 transnational companies and financial institutions such as Motorola, HP, Intel, BNP Paribas, Swiss Bank, McKinsey and so on. It also concentrates three thirds of the 105 foreign-owned banks in Beijing. The rich business atmosphere enables CBD a development environment of modern business led by finance industry.
After quoting the above-mentioned data, the concerned personnel of the CBD Administration Commission said to the reporter, I am afraid you could you still think that Beijing CBD has no rallying point and attraction.
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