Shanghai has commissioned a new landmark to be revealed during the World Expo, which will capture the city’s rising global ambitions – a replica of Wall Street’s “Charging Bull”.
The sculpture on Shanghai’s historic Bund riverfront is proposed to have a more vibrant look than its U.S. counterpart and will face skywards, a symbol of its lofty dream of becoming a world financial centre.
These ambitions are expected to put the city on the centre stage during the six-month Expo, which will bring more than 192 countries to Shanghai, showcasing their best for up to 100 million expected visitors, mostly Chinese.
“Expo will help lift Shanghai’s image in the world. It’s an opportunity to show off China’s achievements,” said Lu Xiongwen, dean of Fudan University School of Management in Shanghai. “A successful Expo will bring greater resources and confidence.”
The central government has announced it plans to build the city, which has long been the country’s business hub, into an international financial centre by 2020.
And the Expo, which is the latest display of China’s growing clout after the Beijing Olympics, is accelerating the city toward its goal.
“Shanghai will make major breakthroughs this year in building a world financial centre,” said Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng.
Shanghai has reportedly spent 400 billion yuan or S$80 billion on infrastructure ahead of the Expo.
It also constructed hundreds of kilometres of new tracks for its Metro system, built new airport terminals and restored the Bund – the strip of its historic riverfront buildings dating from a time when foreign powers dominated the city.
The stock market in Shanghai has seen many changes in the weeks before the Expo, as China recovers from the financial crisis.
Margin trading, short-selling and stock index futures have been introduced, giving many investors more sophisticated investment options, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange is expected to introduce its first foreign listing this year.
HSBC said it hopes to be the first. HSBC was founded in the 19th century and helped the Bund earn the nickname the “Wall Street of Asia”.
“Since the crisis has subsided, the logjam has been unblocked,” said Stephen Green, an economist from Standard Chartered China. “There’s lots of signs of research being done by regulators on how to move things forward.”
However, Mr. Green said that the city’s ambition of becoming a world financial hub largely depends on liberalising the flow of money in and out of China. Stricter policies make it hard to borrow overseas and even to bring back money earned from stock listings in Hong Kong.
Mr. Green added that although loosening capital controls is probably part of Beijing’s long-term plans, it is not yet ready to do so. He stressed that while Shanghai is the country’s centre for equities, Beijing is home to China’s banks, the main source of financing in the country.
“The market is under development, therefore the people making the development decisions are very important and they’re all in Beijing,” said Mr. Green. “It’s hard to see significant regulatory control being turned over to Shanghai, which creates another challenge.”
But one should not underestimate its potential for change, said Pascal Sefrin, Societe General’s China head of corporate and investment banking.
“The 2020 target is achievable if we take into consideration the economic development of China and the growing role of the yuan, which will become a convertible currency,” he said. “There is a written policy, the direction is set.”
Mr. Lu added that Beijing wants Shanghai to be a shipping centre by 2020, and the government of Shanghai has continued to pour investment in the industry sector.