A bird's-eye view of the Lujiazui Financial City in Pudong, Shanghai [Photo/WeChat account: pdnews]

Lujiazui Financial City in Pudong, Shanghai has suggested that global financial centers take full advantage of their resources and facilitate communication and cooperation with each other to ensure that global supply chains and industrial chains work in an open, stable, safe and smooth manner.

This was part of an initiative that the Lujiazui Financial City proposed during a video round-table meeting with its counterparts in Luxembourg, Paris, Casablanca, Dubai, and Singapore on April 28 with the aim of promoting the development of the financial technology and asset management sectors and facilitating economic recovery amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Nicolas Mackel, CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, said the meeting was meaningful because "many people thought global financial centers can only compete with each other, but we are proving that partnerships are also possible, especially in promoting sustainable development."

In recent years, the Lujiazui Financial City has given top priority to the development of the asset management and financial technology sectors.

It is currently home to 87 foreign-funded asset management companies, accounting for more than 90 percent of the country's total. Nine of the top 10 global asset management companies are operating in Lujiazui, as are 22 of 25 foreign-funded institutions that have acquired private fund management (PFM) licenses in China.

"A financial industrial cluster has been formed in Lujiazui, allowing us to spot many potential partners," said Tan Ying, general manager of Russell Investments Management (Shanghai), the first wholly foreign-funded firm to acquire a PFM license in China this year.

According to local authorities, Lujiazui plans to work with other international financial centers and institutions to establish a cooperation mechanism and give full play to asset management institutions in global resource allocation.

Looking at the fin-tech, Lujiazui issued a series of supporting measures for the sector as early as 2014 and upgraded measures in 2018. It also founded China's first fin-tech industrial incubator in 2015 and is currently working to build an exhibition center and research institute specializing in developing innovative supervision mechanisms for the fin-tech industry.

Hundreds of fin-tech companies, including Alipay, China UnionPay, and CCB Fintech have set up offices in the area.

As Shanghai pushes forward with the development of an international financial center, Lujiazui is seeking more international cooperation opportunities.

Over the past few years, it has signed cooperation agreements with the International Capital Market Association and Casablanca Finance City, and has maintained frequent exchanges with Singapore, Paris, Luxembourg, and Dubai in training financial talents and the aforementioned fields.

The initiative is based on the fact that international financial centers are the stabilizer of the global financial market and the driver of global economic growth. A regular communication system should be set up among international financial centers worldwide to lay a solid foundation for cooperation and cope with global issues in the future.