Article is from WeChat public account: Urban War (ID: sunbushu123) , the title picture comes from: Oriental IC
Yesterday, Shanghai held a press conference to announce two major events.
First, Issue the “Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Construction of Shanghai Fintech Center”, and strive to build Shanghai into a globally competitive financial technology center within 5 years.
In today’s world, there are only two industries standing at the top of the global food chain. One is technology, and the other is finance. As long as one city seizes one of them, it will be in the first echelon, and Shanghai will be both. Two for one, creating a new species of “fintech center”, which shows Shanghai’s pursuit of excellence.
Second, it is announced that the Bund Conference, the world’s largest fintech conference, will be held on April 23 this year, and aims to become a “Carnival” in the global fintech field. It is expected to be held annually in Shanghai and settled permanently in Shanghai.
The original ordinary place name on the Bund has a unique symbolic meaning for Shanghainese and even Chinese people. It symbolizes the old dreams of Shanghai, such as Shiliyangchang, Oriental Paris, and Asia ’s largest financial center. The name of the Bund Conference puts Shanghai’s ambitions on building a fintech center on paper.
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Since the reform and opening up, Shanghai has gradually realized the transformation from China ’s largest industrial city to China ’s largest financial city.
So far, Shanghai has built China’s most complete financial factor market. Since the establishment of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1990, the China Foreign Exchange Trading Center (1994) , (1996) , Shanghai Futures Exchange (1999) , Shanghai Gold Exchange (2002) , China Financial Futures Exchange (2006) , Shanghai Clearing House (2009) , etc. .
According to the world’s most authoritative global financial center index report (GFCI 26) , New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai rank among the top five Shanghai has risen to be the fifth largest financial center city in the world, and it can be called the financial center with the most progress in the past 40 years. In 2018, the total market capitalization and IPO financing of listed companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange ranked fourth in the world.
However, as the saying goes, half a mile is half a ninety miles away, and Shanghai’s advanced road has already encountered a bottleneck. In today’s world, the pattern of top financial centers has long been solidified. New York and London are the first echelon of thunder, Hong Kong and Singapore are the second stable rock. Shanghai’s financial status wants to rise to the next level. The challenge is huge and difficult.
What is the reason? Let’s first understand how the traditional financial center was formed and evolved.
Observing a brief history of the development of world-class financial centers can conclude a common feature. Most of them have evolved from trade centers. Ports have promoted the prosperity of trade, while trade has brought logistics and capital flows, but the trade volume is large enough. At that time, fund settlement, fund borrowing, and listing financing occurred.The need for investment, futures trading, this time the financial industry emerged.
When the size of the financial industry is large enough, it will change from the supporting role of the real economy to a multiplier, thereby leading the operation of the entire economic system, and thus generating a strong financial center city. However, in order to become the top financial center that dominates the world, it is not enough to rely solely on the evolution of the financial industry. It also needs the support of currency hegemony. The reason why London and New York are at the top of the food chain is the strength of the pound and the dollar as international currencies status.
In other words, London and New York rely on the afterglow of the British Empire, and on the pervasive dollar hegemony. Hong Kong and Singapore, relying on the special advantages of free ports and urban economies, do business in offshore finance and super contacts, and they can only rank second.
It can be said that after hundreds of years of development and evolution, the path to the advancement of traditional financial centers has a clear path dependence. If Shanghai’s financial status needs to go further, it must either follow the route of Hong Kong and Singapore’s super contact, Take the path of currency hegemony in New York and London. Obviously, these two paths are not what Shanghai wants.
If you want to break the game, you must find another way or change lanes to overtake.
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After years of exploration, Shanghai has finally given a refreshing answer, which is to marry technology and build a world-leading fintech center.
What is fintech? There is no clear international definition. Generally speaking, it refers to emerging business models and new technologies that have a significant impact on the supply of financial markets driven by emerging frontier technologies such as big data, blockchain, cloud computing, artificial intelligence Applications, new products and services.
For example, the country now attaches great importance to blockchain. If this technology is widely and deeply applied in the financial industry, it can generate “digital”Gold” is a new product that does not require currency hegemony and can be widely used in international payments to promote the internationalization of the RMB in an unprecedented way. This is a typical fintech scenario.
Actually, The great value of fintech is to make the financial industry truly realize inclusiveness and empower the real economy with higher efficiency and wider penetration.
Everyone knows that the private economy only accounts for 60% of China’s GDP, but it has created more than 80% of jobs, which is the cornerstone of national stability. However, China ’s private economy has always been a “small and scattered” situation. In the traditional financial risk control system, it belongs to the category of “poor qualifications and high risks”. It is difficult for loans to become a major problem for China ’s private economy. Love can’t help.
In recent years, fintech companies represented by online merchant banks have solved this problem to a large extent by virtue of their large user base and the use of big data technologies. A total of 3.6 trillion yuan of loans have been issued over the past ten years. The loans went to 20 million small and micro enterprises and small shop owners. The smallest loan was only one yuan. This is a typical case of technology finance.
Simply put, The fintech center’s capability boundary is far beyond the traditional financial center. It can do both traditional financial business and things that traditional finance can’t do. The deep integration of finance and technology in the future will give birth to many unexpected chemical reactions and become an excellent choice for China’s financial industry to change lanes and overtake.
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With its long-standing financial genes, deep-rooted science and education background, and unparalleled city charm, Shanghai is the best testing ground for the deep integration of finance and technology. It is the recognition of the strategic value of fintech. The Centre gave great support.
In September 2019, the Shanghai Headquarters of the People’s Bank of China issued a special “Guiding Opinions on Scientific and Technological Development Supporting Shanghai’s Construction of a Fintech Center.
In fact, in order to build itself into a global fintech center, Shanghai has prepared three big moves in recent years:
The first move is a free trade zone, and trade is the source of finance. Trade is alive. Finance will live. The free trade zone further expands Shanghai’s level of opening up, and continues to consolidate and strengthen Shanghai as an international trade. The position of the center attracts more foreign-funded enterprises, foreign talents and foreign funds to settle in Shanghai.
At present, Shanghai Port has surpassed Singapore Port to become the world’s largest port. With a combined throughput of more than 100 million, Shanghai’s two major airports are the world’s largest aviation hub cities. The number of Consulate Generals in Shanghai has reached 76, ranking China’s (Mainland) . This is all the infrastructure for Shanghai to build an international trade center.
The second trick is the science and technology board. In June last year, the science and technology board that had been in preparation for many years was officially launched. What can the science and technology board do? The sword refers to Nasdaq and promotes the rise of Chinese technology companies.
As you know, China’s financial market is dominated by the banking industry, the stock market is underdeveloped, indirect financing is strong, and direct financing is weak. As a result, many high-quality companies, especially many Internet companies, need to cross the ocean to go to the United States, and the US capital market The valuation given to China Stocks has not been high. At the same time, domestic investors have missed the dividends of China’s Internet rise.
Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Board is to turn this situation around so that Chinese technology companies can enjoy better and more convenient financing services than Nasdaq. In a word, the science and technology board is an important tool for a strong country with science and technology, and an important infrastructure for Shanghai to build a financial technology center.
At the same time, in this wave of artificial intelligence entrepreneurship, Shanghai has released policy dividends to attract cutting-edge technology companies and talents to land in Shanghai. New technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, 5G, and blockchain areUnderlying and key technologies. This means that the future financial center must be a technology center.
The third move is the Bund Conference. Financial technology is no longer than the manufacturing industry. It has a longer industrial chain and must be intensive for development. It must concentrate high-quality resources in advantageous areas in order to maximize efficiency. However, it is not enough to rely on the government’s resources to gather advantageous resources. To build Shanghai into an international financial technology center, the scientific research force of the academic community and the in-depth participation of top domestic and foreign financial technology companies are essential.
In this sense, the Bund Conference is very timely and very important. It will be the first shot of Shanghai as a technology and financial center, and it will also sound like an international rally, aiming to call on global financial and technology talents Gather in Shanghai to build a new financial center.
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Recalling the history, the high-end summit has played a key role in many major nodes in China’s development.
For example, the Canton Fair participated in and witnessed China ’s growth as the world ’s largest trading nation. The Beijing Olympics symbolized the official rise of China. The Expo initiated a new round of reform and opening up in China, while the Bund Conference blew up fintech And the financial horn.
The strength of a country is not only reflected in its ability to effectively mobilize manpower, production capacity, and natural resources within its territory, but also in mobilizing manpower, production capacity, and natural resources outside its territory to serve it. The former tests the governance system of a country, while the latter tests the financial system of a country.
China has performed very well in the first area, but it is still weak in the second area, because we are still just a financial power, not a financial power.
There is no doubt that finance has become an important national capability. In the next 10 years, Shanghai will set off again, starting with the construction of an international financial technology center, to help China become a world financial power.
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Tell a little story.
According to China Daily, Singapore ’s Straits Times published an article in 2017 entitled “When Lin Ruisheng feels like a“ villain ”in Shanghai, a smart city.
The article tells the story of Singapore’s Minister of Manpower, Lin Ruisheng, who bought chestnuts in Shanghai a few years ago. He said that he saw Shanghai people buy chestnuts on the street, just shake the phone, and left without paying.
Lin Ruisheng thought there was a promotion. When it was his turn, he told the hawker that I didn’t need a discount and I would pay the full price. But it turned out that Shanghai people were using mobile phone code to pay, and Mr. Lin felt like a fellow at that time.
The person telling this story is Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Lee Hsien Loong wants to use this story to tell Singaporeans that Singapore has fallen behind Shanghai in terms of smart payment and other aspects.
This can be seen as a microcosm of a fintech center surpassing a traditional financial center.
Article is from WeChat public account: Urban War (ID: sunbushu123)