'Square Mile'acknowledges China's financial importance

New body founded to advise on business engagement

LONDON - The City of London, financial center of the British capital, will soon establish an advisory council composed 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 Corporation, will lead the new body, the corporation said in a statement published on its website on Thursday (local time).

The council will include "nine distinguished leaders" from the Chinese financial services sectors, including Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, and Wang Jianxi, executive vice-president and chief risk officer at the China Investment Corporation, the country's $200 billion sovereign wealth fund.

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

"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 in a statement.

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

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

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

Though "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 commented.

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

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

China Daily

(China Daily 10/30/2010 page10)