Opening ceremony of new campus of SAIF, China's top business school, in the Lujiazui area of Shanghai's Pudong New District, on March 16. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China's top business school, the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF), has announced the opening of a new campus in Lujiazui, a financial hub in the Pudong New District, on March 16, noting that there was an opening ceremony where the school also reached a deal with Lujiazui administrators.

The agreement calls for the two to work together on training finance professionals and doing research on finance to contribute to Lujiazui's development and Shanghai's goal of becoming an international financial center. The two are also expected to set up a private securities investment research center to train managers and help the private securities sector. They will also organize forums, salons and lectures involving global leaders and experts from business and government for the exchange of ideas.

SAIF is also expected to provide training courses for top managers working in Lujiazui and to use its resources to develop a post-doc innovation base at the area. In commenting on this, Zhang Chun, executive dean of SAIF, says that the Pudong campus is a significant move for SAIF in its development, and it helps increase cooperation with the Lujiazui area.

Lujiazui authorities say that the deal is a perfect match, since they both have the same mission -- turning Shanghai into a global finance center. One sign of their cooperation was the finance forum held on the same day, where many leading finance experts showed up to discuss the current supply-side reforms and financial innovation. It is expected to be an annual event for getting together experts and company leaders to brainstorm on various economic and finance topics.