Shenzhen, Guangdong province, aims to become an international center of financial technology by 2025 through an all-around digital upgrading of financial institutions and propping up real economies with innovative fundraising channels. The target was proposed in a draft plan unveiled recently by the municipal financial regulatory authority. The plan stated Shenzhen will build five industrial parks and office clusters oriented toward fintech development, and cultivate more than 10 world-renowned leading fintech firms. China Development Bank and Guangming district in Shenzhen signed a CNY10 billion fintech funding agreement to meet diversified fundraising demand for scientific research and commercializing projects at a science town in the district. The town is one of the national science centers located in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Several supercomputers in the town are expected to pave the way for fintech innovations, including Peng Cheng Cloud Brain jointly set up by Huawei and Peng Cheng Laboratory. Shenzhen announced it would organize an annual fintech festival starting this year. As part of the festival, an international competition – The FinTechathon – kicked off this week.
Liu Guohong, Director of the Finance and Modern Industry Research Center at the Shenzhen-based think tank China Development Institute, said Shenzhen has already laid a strong foundation but there is still a gap between it and global fintech hubs such as New York and Singapore. Many financial heavyweights have set up their technology subsidiaries in the city, including banks and securities agencies. Shenzhen-based technological giants like Tencent and Huawei have invested heavily in related technology platforms. WeBank, China’s first private and digital-only bank, was also founded in Shenzhen. The city’s advantage is in technical support in software and hardware, with many established platforms of leading technology firms. But Liu also pointed out that its weakness is its supervision and talent pool compared to Beijing and Shanghai.
In the Global Financial Centers Index jointly published by Z/Yen, a British think tank, and China Development Institute in March, Shenzhen ranked 10th, following Shanghai in fourth and Beijing in eighth. The Shenzhen plan encourages financial firms to make full use of technologies, such as big data and artificial intelligence, and to digitalize loan approvals and risk controls. Shenzhen HTI Group Co, a local investment firm for high-tech startups, has established an online fundraising platform to provide loans without traditional collateral requirements, the China Daily reports.
