Shanghai has unveiled ambitions to become a leading hub for both the domestic and global fintech sector.
On 15 January the Shanghai municipal government officially released its “Plan for Accelerating the Establishment and Implementation of the Shanghai Fintech Hub” (加快推进上海金融科技中心建设实施方案).
The plan sets the goal of transforming Shanghai into “fintech hub which possesses global competitive capability” within a five year period, via a series of measures including fintech enterprise incubation, preferential tax policies and measures to attract talent.
The plan proposes a total of 25 innovation work measures across five areas, with key goals including:
- Full-speed development of key fintech R&D capabilities;
- Actively driving R&D breakthroughs in emerging technologies including big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain and 5G;
- Driving the integrated development of technological and financial innovations;
- Comprehensively raising fintech application levels;
- Raising the ability of fintech to service the real economy, and increase the level of satisfaction of consumers with regard to financial services;
- Vigorously attracting financial institutions and large-scale tech companies to establish fintech subsidiaries, fintech R&D centres and open innovation platforms in Shanghai, and accelerating the formation of a fintech enterprise cluster;
- Vigorously driving fintech regulatory innovation trials (sandboxes);
- Further improving Yangtze River regulatory coordination – driving sharing of fintech regulatory information within the Yangtze River region.
- Comprehensively operation of a first-grade fintech development environment;
- Driving departmental sharing of data, lawful and orderly enriching of fintech data resources;
- Operation of a fair, competitive, orderly and standardised market environment.
The launch of the five year plan coincided with the official unveiling of the sign for the new Lujiazui Fintech Exhibition Center (陆家嘴金融科技展示中心), situated in the Lujiazui financial district of the Pudong new Area.
According to Ren Kaifeng (任凯锋), vice-head of the Lujiazui Regulatory Authority, the new exhibition centre is situated at the core of the Lujiazui financial district and has an area of approximately 3000 square metres.
The centre will invite over a dozen renowned fintech enterprises to establish and maintain their own fintech application displays, giving them the opportunity to display technologies, products, models and services.
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