Poorest province is knocking on richest door
By Richard Fu |
November 19, 2012, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
WHILE a number of western cities are vying for the crown of becoming the international financial center of China's inland, the capital of the nation's poorest province has signaled it won't be left out of the sweepstakes.
The municipal government of Guiyang in the southwestern province of Guizhou has officially written a regional international financial hub into its strategic development plan, aiming to attract a large number of regional headquarters of banks, insurance companies and securities firms.
On a per-capita basis, Guizhou's gross domestic product ranked last among all Chinese provinces in 2011. But its growth rate has been one of the nation's highest, showing great potential, Guiyang Vice Mayor Wang Yuxiang told a group of investors on the sidelines of the 9th China International Finance Forum.
A number of western cities, including the booming urban areas of Chongqing and Chengdu, are aiming to transform themselves into regional international financial hubs. Even less-developed and lesser-known cities like Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, have announced similar ambitions, in part leveraging their proximity to Southeast Asia.
"How can Guiyang compete with other western cities?" Zhou Xinqian, chairman of Shenlin International Holdings Ltd, asked Wang at the forum. "And do you think it's necessary for us to have this many international financial centers?"
The vice mayor, who previously worked for the Trade Union Financial Affairs of China, answered, "We have to be distinctive."
Ideal place
For one thing, he said, Guizhou's pleasant weather throughout the year could make the city an ideal place for financial institutions to locate disaster recovery functions.
The landlocked and mountainous province is already a key base for China's defense forces, thanks to the natural and geographic conditions, he noted.
"I've talked to the heads of several financial institutions about building disaster recovery data centers in Guiyang," he said. "All are very interested."
In response to doubts about whether Guiyang is being a bit too ambitious trying to style itself as a regional international financial center, Wang replied: "We are not competing with Shanghai, Beijing or Tianjin, and also not with cities like Chongqing, Chengdu or Kunming. Maybe the 'international' tag sounds a bit too aggressive for Guiyang, but we're really seriously working on it."
To that end, the city is building a financial complex in its new Jinyang district, which will serve as key infrastructure for the proposed financial center in the future.
The Guiyang government also announced a series of preferential policies to woo financial institutions to settle there.
Among them is a tax rebate plan in which financial workers would have the portion of personal income taxes collected by the local government refunded to them in the first three years of their company's moving into the financial zone.
"That's big money," Wang said. "For senior executives, the refund in three years would be equivalent to the price of a villa in Guiyang. So that's a villa for free."
Around 20 financial institutions so far have agreed to site some operations in the financial complex when it is completed.
The municipal government of Guiyang in the southwestern province of Guizhou has officially written a regional international financial hub into its strategic development plan, aiming to attract a large number of regional headquarters of banks, insurance companies and securities firms.
On a per-capita basis, Guizhou's gross domestic product ranked last among all Chinese provinces in 2011. But its growth rate has been one of the nation's highest, showing great potential, Guiyang Vice Mayor Wang Yuxiang told a group of investors on the sidelines of the 9th China International Finance Forum.
A number of western cities, including the booming urban areas of Chongqing and Chengdu, are aiming to transform themselves into regional international financial hubs. Even less-developed and lesser-known cities like Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, have announced similar ambitions, in part leveraging their proximity to Southeast Asia.
"How can Guiyang compete with other western cities?" Zhou Xinqian, chairman of Shenlin International Holdings Ltd, asked Wang at the forum. "And do you think it's necessary for us to have this many international financial centers?"
The vice mayor, who previously worked for the Trade Union Financial Affairs of China, answered, "We have to be distinctive."
Ideal place
For one thing, he said, Guizhou's pleasant weather throughout the year could make the city an ideal place for financial institutions to locate disaster recovery functions.
The landlocked and mountainous province is already a key base for China's defense forces, thanks to the natural and geographic conditions, he noted.
"I've talked to the heads of several financial institutions about building disaster recovery data centers in Guiyang," he said. "All are very interested."
In response to doubts about whether Guiyang is being a bit too ambitious trying to style itself as a regional international financial center, Wang replied: "We are not competing with Shanghai, Beijing or Tianjin, and also not with cities like Chongqing, Chengdu or Kunming. Maybe the 'international' tag sounds a bit too aggressive for Guiyang, but we're really seriously working on it."
To that end, the city is building a financial complex in its new Jinyang district, which will serve as key infrastructure for the proposed financial center in the future.
The Guiyang government also announced a series of preferential policies to woo financial institutions to settle there.
Among them is a tax rebate plan in which financial workers would have the portion of personal income taxes collected by the local government refunded to them in the first three years of their company's moving into the financial zone.
"That's big money," Wang said. "For senior executives, the refund in three years would be equivalent to the price of a villa in Guiyang. So that's a villa for free."
Around 20 financial institutions so far have agreed to site some operations in the financial complex when it is completed.
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