Foreign and Military Affairs

London to set up advisory council for China‎

By Zhang Chunyan and Zhang Haizhou (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-10-29 19:40

LONDON: London, the financial center of Britain, will soon establish an advisory council of prominent Chinese government and financial figures to guide its engagement with China.

The City of London Advisory Council for China will be first of its kind in the world's two biggest financial centers, New York and London.

Stuart Fraser, policy committee chairman at the City of London Corp, will lead the new body, the corporation said on its website on Thursday.

The council will include "nine distinguished leaders" from the Chinese financial services sectors, including Liu Mingkang, chairman of China's banking regulator, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, and Wang Jianxi, executive vice-president and chief risk officer at China Investment Corp.

It will also include top executives of the China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co, China Merchants Bank Co and the investment bank China International Capital Corp.

"It is the City of London's aspiration that its engagement with China promotes partnership and a two-way exchange of trade and investment in financial and professional services," Fraser said.

"The creation of this council is a significant step towards achieving this by providing a platform for high level engagement between policymakers and key industry players in both countries," he added.

All members of the committee will serve in an unpaid capacity, the statement said.

The advisory council will guide the City of London Corp's visits, events and research involving China, as well as the work of its representative offices in Beijing and Shanghai, it said.

The establishment of the council embodies the growing recognition in financial centers worldwide of the importance of Chinese institutions and investors, observers said.

"Although largely symbolic", the establishment of the council "demonstrates the growing recognition in financial centers around the world of the importance of Chinese institutions and investors, including its sovereign wealth funds, which invest hundreds of billions of dollars in overseas markets," Dow Jones said.

The City of London is the world's leading international financial and business center. It has established a City of London Advisory Council for India to help shape its engagements with India.

The inaugural meeting of the City of London Advisory Council for China will take place in London on Monday.