Lingang unveils plan to accelerate emerging financial industry development

The Lingang Special Area has mapped out an action plan for accelerating the development of the emerging financial industry to better integrate into and serve major national strategies, promote financial innovation and development in an all-round and high-level manner, and enhance its ability to serve the real economy.

Hence, the special area has put forward three basic principles of "organic combination of coordinated development of Lujiazui and Lingang, two-way empowerment of financial services and industrial development, and mutual promotion of deepening reform and expanding opening-up," and defined the "1+4" development target system.

The "1" means to build an emerging financial center by 2025, characterized by smart finance, openness and integration, and collaborative good governance, according to Yuan Guohua, deputy Party secretary of the Lingang Special Area Administrative Committee.

The "4" refers to fostering a mature emerging financial ecosystem with the doubling of the number of financial enterprises; the construction of a national-leading financial science and technology center with three to five leading enterprises with international reputation being cultivated. Meanwhile, major progress will be made in the pilot of financial reform and opening-up, and a financial service system connected with international high standards will be established; Also, science and technology finance and cross-border finance are at the forefront throughout the country while the contribution of the financial industry will become more prominent.

Traditional finance and emerging financial formats will be developed together, and the added value of the financial industry will increase by more than 25 percent annually, Yuan said.

Wang Yunfeng, chief executive officer of HSBC (China), told Shanghai Daily that the bank will open a branch in Lingang after it was licensed by the Shanghai banking regulator last month.

Cross-border banking service plays a major role in HSBC. Lingang is a node of dual circulation and the new branch will connect Lingang with HSBC's global businesses, Wang said.

HSBC was honored to be picked by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange to pilot the program for further opening-up of China's financial sector, the CEO added.

Peter Foo, president and CEO of UOB (China), suggested that in the case of dual circulation, the fund management of foreign banks and the management of some offshore and cross-border fund pools will promote wider use of the Chinese yuan.

The pricing of raw materials and goods for buyers and sellers must be opened through policies such as Lingang unveiled this time, which can also better integrate with the domestic market in the field of green finance, he added.

Li Ting, deputy chief of Lingang's finance and trade division, said that the new finance action plan is aimed at attracting global high-quality financial institutions to support the frontier development of the special area.

In order to achieve the objectives, the action plan proposes eight special actions and six guarantee measures, with a total of 50 specific policies.

First, the financial science and technology special action will accelerate the formation of enterprise clusters, improve the industrial ecological chain, improve the level of R&D and application, and promote the pilot of financial science and technology innovation.

Second, the special action on science and technology finance will improve the level of science and technology finance alliance, accelerate the construction of science and technology insurance innovation leading area, strengthen the direct financing support for science and technology innovation enterprises, and increase the support for "raising, investment, management and withdrawal" of equity investment funds.

Third is the special action of financial support for new forms of trade, to improve the level of trade balance facilitation, promote the innovative development of offshore trade, and accelerate the construction of oil and natural gas trading center and other element platforms.

Fourth is the special action of shipping finance to enrich the financing channels of shipping enterprises and support the development of the shipping market and the derivatives market.

Fifth is the cross-border financial special action, promote the construction of an international financial asset trading platform, promote the agglomeration of the headquarters economy, and continue to deepen the pilot projects of qualified foreign limited partnership, qualified domestic limited partnership and high-level opening of cross-border trade and investment.

Sixth is the special action of offshore finance, which supports banks to improve the level of offshore business, give better play to the role of free-trade non-resident accounts, and carry out offshore financing according to international practices.

Seventh is the special action of green finance, enriching the green financial product system, supporting the technological innovation and listing financing of green enterprises, and encouraging environmental, social and corporate governance information disclosure.

And, eighth is the special action of supply chain finance, which supports small, medium and micro enterprises to go up the chain, promote the development of supply chain finance, and deepen financing services.