Lujiazui targets becoming high-end financial leasing hub

Dawn breaks over Lujiazui Financial District in Shanghai on March 7, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

Lujiazui, Shanghai's financial city, is ambitious to become a high-end financial leasing hub by improving its services and supporting its facilities and business environment.

The area, with an abundance of financial market factors and financial infrastructure such as licensed institutions and professionals, is driving development of the financial leasing industry.

Ping An International Financial Leasing Co, located in Lujiazui, has become an industry leader with only six years of development. Its total assets exceed 230 billion yuan ($33.34 billion).

Li Wenyi, the company's deputy general manager, considers that its rapid development can largely be attributed to Lujiazui's good business environment.

Li spoke highly of Lujiazui's fundraising environment for the financial leasing industry and said that it is easy for the company to integrate various financial resources.

Lujiazui is home to 13 state-level factor markets, 850 licensed financial institutions accounting for 60 percent of the city's total, 19 foreign-funded banks such as HSBC and Citibank, 6,000 emerging financial institutions, and over 3,000 professional service agencies.

Authorities at the Lujiazui Management Bureau say that the area is working hard to reach its goal of becoming a high-end financial leasing hub.

It hopes to be the home of the China Financial Leasing Industry Association, which is still in the planning stage but is expected to strengthen the industry's discipline and promote its healthy development.

Lujiazui also joins hands with industry organizations and third-party institutions to organize forums and symposiums, and supports training programs for financial leasing brokers.

It is guiding local state-owned enterprises and social capital sources to set up a financial leasing industry fund to help small and medium-sized enterprises solve fundraising difficulties.

Moreover, it gives financial support to leading financial leasing companies to encourage them to build professional service platforms, and has encouraged the Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange to cooperate with related institutions to build a trading platform.

Thanks to those measures, Lujiazui has attracted over 200 financial leasing enterprises and nearly 1 trillion yuan. Five of those companies have assets exceeding 100 billion yuan, and three rank among China's top 10 financial leasing companies.