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By Wang Zhaokun The creation of an environment which will attract world-class minds and the development of an internationally convertible currency are vital in building a competitive global financial center in China, a senior British business official said Monday. "The construction of tall buildings and roads is important, but the major difficulty and challenge would be how to attract talent around the globe to work and live in China because financial companies are determined by the quality of their people," Stuart Fraser, policy chairman of the City of London Corporation told the Global Times Monday after attending the City of London Advisory Council's first meeting in China. The City of London, which has set up offices in Beijing and Shanghai, established the Advisory Council for China at the end of last year to strengthen cooperation between China and the UK in the financial sector. Fraser said the City of London, the world's leading financial and business center, has a wealth of experience to offer China. The City is currently advising China on soft issues, including the conditions to be fostered to attract people from around the world and to raise the yuan to the level of the dollar, the sterling and the yen, according to the chairman. "You may need to learn how to avoid the risks and mistakes we made during the growth and industry of the financial industry," he said, adding that the most important area in the short term is consumer protection in financial services. "China has to prevent professional institutions from taking advantage of consumers, as was seen in the West during the financial crisis," Fraser said. The City of London established a similar advisory council for India in 2007, which helped shape engagement between the countries. "It's fair to say that China did not start as early as India, but was faster in developing its financial services," Fraser noted. However, he also hoped that the Chinese government would speed up the process of opening up its domestic market to foreign companies. "We understand there are people wary of opening up too rapidly, a problem existing almost everywhere, but there is still a considerable concern as to how quickly approval will be given for foreign firms to expand," Fraser spoke in the interview. He believed that this opening-up would help improve efficiency of the domestic industry via fair competition. |
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