Towering ambition

The Jiangbeizui park in Chongqing's Jiangbeizui central business district. Provided to China Daily

Attracting talent remains major challenge for megacity

For Huang Dewei, the inland city of Chongqing is living up to the kind of promise it held for him when he moved here last year: it is heading relentlessly toward becoming an international financial center.

Almost from the moment Huang, 37, first set eyes on Chongqing, he knew the city was for him, and he showed this was no mere infatuation by packing his bags and moving more than 2,000 kilometers from his hometown, Shanghai, to look for business opportunities.

"Compared with first-tier cities such as Shanghai where competition is so fierce, there are more opportunities to be tapped here," says Huang, the executive director of Pacific Alliance Group, a private equity firm based in Hong Kong and specializing in Asia.

He is in charge of Pacific Alliance's business expansion in Chongqing and in western China. It was Jiangbeizui in Chongqing Liangjiang New Area, the only national-level development zone in inland China, that particularly caught Huang's eyes when he first came here.

"Apart from the favorable policies and great efficiency of the area's administrators, what is so attractive is the familiar feeling Jiangbeizui conveys. Although it is not as modern as its counterparts in Shanghai, the financial institutions gathered here remind me of Shanghai Pudong's Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone, where I worked for eight years."

While Chongqing bears a superficial resemblance to Shanghai - dozens of multinationals with their headquarters in bonded zones, gleaming skyscrapers casting their shadows over narrow lanes - Chongqing and Shanghai have taken very different paths in trying to turn themselves into financial centers.

While Shanghai's goal has been to become a global center for innovation, transactions, pricing and clearing of yuan-denominated financial products by 2015, Chongqing's aim for that year is to become China's first inland offshore financial center offering settlement services.

"There are essentially three kinds of financial centers," says Mu Huaping, director of the Chongqing Economic and Information Technology Commission. "The first is like Beijing, distinguished by the concentration of administrative headquarters; the second is like Shanghai, boasting various types of financial markets including stock and gold exchanges; and the third is like Singapore, distinguishing itself as an international financial settlement center."

Mu says the way Singapore developed is worthy of emulating because Chongqing has a solid foundation of transnational business and foreign investment.

While the idea of emulating Singapore - or any other highly successful city - may be alluring, there are those who say such ambitions need to be realistic.

Zhang Zhongyi, vice-president of Chongqing University and an adviser to the government, says that given Chongqing's location, it is impossible for it to become a national financial center like Shanghai.

"Chongqing can become the regional financial center, and that's it."

It was at the beginning of 2009 that Chongqing, the largest municipality under the direct control of the Chinese central government, announced its plan to become a major financial center in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, one of the country's most important trade and manufacturing areas.

The Yangtze River Delta, on which Shanghai is located, covers about 210,000 sq km with a population of 90 million; the so-called western triangle in which Chongqing is located covers 378,000 sq km and has a population of 140 million.

"Chongqing enjoys many advantages and has grown rapidly thanks to the strong support of China's go-west strategy and the larger booming market here," Zhang says.

Last year, Chongqing was able to boast growth of 16.4 percent, double that of Shanghai, making it one of the fastest growing regions in the nation.

The Chongqing government plans to maintain GDP growth of 12.5 percent between 2011 and 2015, according to its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), making it top among all the local governments in China.

Lee Lin, founder and managing director of ChinaRun Capital Partners, a local venture capital company, says there have been tremendous changes and achievements in Chongqing's financial industry since he came to the city in 2007, and expects that to continue.

"The financial sector is closely related to the development of a city's economy, and the financial industry here in Chongqing will maintain its growth."

Lin, 47, a native of Taiwan, was once the general manager of Standard Chartered Bank's Chongqing branch.

"Driven by the vibrant business here, I left the bank and set up this venture capital group with some of my friends in 2010."

Chongqing's financial services industry accounted for 7 percent of the city's GDP last year and is expected to account for 10 percent by the end of 2015, according to the government's 12th Five-Year Plan. In 2011, only two other Chinese cities, Beijing (12.8 percent) and Shanghai (11.7 percent) had financial services accounting for a bigger percentage of GDP.

However, one of the big challenges for Chongqing is to attract enough professionals to support the fast growth.

About 70,000 people work in finance-related industries, and it is predicted that the number will top 100,000 in 2015 and be about 160,000 in 2020, according to figures provided by the local government.

"This is far from enough", says Lin of ChinaRun Capital Partners. Compared with much developed cities such as Shanghai, there are fewer talents specializing in law, securities and other finance-related services in Chongqing, but more talents are expected to come with its fast financial industry development.

"Considering the fast development of the local financial industry, Citibank in Chongqing has been working with local universities to help train financial professionals to meet the changing market needs. And with more big foreign companies investing in the city, you will see an increasing number of talented professionals come here, as the local financial sector continues to expand and evolve," says Amy Mao, general manager of Citibank's Chongqing branch.

Huang of Pacific Alliance also says that as Chongqing rapidly develops and business opportunities grow, more professionals from first-tier cities like him will come here.

"The pace of life in Chongqing is slower and more relaxed compared with Shanghai. Of course, the cost of living is also a lot lower. If you can enjoy the same abundant business opportunities, why wouldn't you chose to reside in a more pleasant environment?"

Contact the writers at huhaiyan@chinadaily.com.cn and mawei@chinadaily.com.cn