 The Beijing municipal government has recently released a policy document announcing that the capital city will be transformed into a financial center of global significance. It has provoked a lot of interest from the mass media.
Let's take a look at some of the published opinions.
Reporter:
The Guangming Daily carried an article that lists Beijing's resources for becoming an international financial center. The city's first advantage is the financial industry's improved performance in recent years. The second is the city's easy access to government support. And the financial industry's pollution free added value makes it a very attractive development source in this Green Olympics year. The capital's third resource comes from its economic bonds with the cities surrounding Beijing. An enlarged and integrated market for financial solutions and services are vital to Beijing as a prospective high caliber financial center.
A Beijing News commentary claims that a global financial center should emerge naturally from the market and not be a contrived creation of government policy. The author points out that mature market economies have long ago given up on planning the industry focus for their cities; the Beijing government's practice is tainted by a command economy, which has unexceptionally proven to be an inefficient resource distribution tool. The author suggests that the municipal government return to its proper role as an infrastructure-builder and service-provider to streamline the environment for all potential businesses, no matter whether finance, culture or art. The market will provide the answers in due time.
A Xinhuanet.com article advises the Beijing municipal government to stop trying to turn the city into a financial center. The author cited a definition of a global financial center and provided a reality check for Beijing's financial industry. One striking and embarrassing fact is that not a single nation-level trading center is based in Beijing. In this sense, Beijing is only a control center for financial policies. The author feels that Beijing should maintain its role as a political and cultural center, discard its possessive mindset, and use its recourses to sustain Shanghai as China's real financial center.
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