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Beijing's New Mission

Beijing, a city with rich history, is strengthening its efforts to become an inter-nationally acknowledged financial center.

Beijing has long been recognized as thepolitical center of China, while Shanghai re-mains an international financial center.

The Beijing Municipal Govemment is-sued a draft notice on promoting financial industry development, which raised the no-tion of forging a new image for the city as a financial center with global influence for the first time. It suggested Beijing become the national financial decision-making cen-ter, financial management center, financial information and service center. In the draft notice, the financial street, located inside the West Second Ring Road, will become the major financial center, while the central busi-ness district, situated on the East Third Ring Road, will become the sub-financial center.

Currently, there are 677 financial institu-tions in Beijing, outpacing that of other cities including Shanghai. Beijing's financial in-dustry contributed 12.5 percent to the city's GDP in 2007, the highest proportion of all cities in China.

Huo Xuewen, Director of Beijing Municipal Financial Service Office, stated Beijing's new goal will not pose any compe-tition to other cities and that China will see a pattern of multiple financial centers.