As Asia's fortunes rise, Shenzhen steps up
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Shenzhen, in Southeast China's Guangdong Province, ranked ninth among global financial centers, according to the latest Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) report released Friday. Shenzhen remained the top Chinese mainland city on the list.
Shenzhen and Sydney tied for ninth place in the latest GFCI ranking, while Shanghai's rank dropped to 11th from 10th in the previous GFCI and Beijing climbed to 15th from 23rd.
The latest GFCI tracked 75 financial centers globally, taking into account 64 factors grouped into five areas including people, business environment, infrastructure, market access and general competitiveness.
The latest report is the seventh GFCI, which has been produced biannually by the Z/ Yen Group for the City of London Corporation since March 2007.
Shenzhen made the list for the first time in September 2009 when it ranked fifth, topping mainland cities.
Hong Kong and Singapore retained third and fourth place, respectively, with the rating points gap between them and the first two cities narrowing. New York and London tied for first in this GFCI.
The report showed an improvement for many Asian cities from their previous GFCI rankings.
Tokyo was elevated to fifth from seventh.
Taipei climbed four places to 21st, while Dubai ranked 24th, down from 21st in the sixth GFCI, while Seoul moved to 28th place from 35th.
While calling Hong Kong and Singapore as the leading financial centers in Asia, Stuart Fraser, chairman of the City of London Corporation's policy and resources committee, said in the report that "there is continuing uncertainty about second-tier Asian centers."
Emerging Asian centers Beijing, Dubai and Shanghai are "global contenders" at the current stage, the report said.
However, though they have all demonstrated connectedness, they "do not currently have sufficient breadth or depth in their financial services sectors to be global leaders," it said.
Shenzhen is only a "transnational" center rather than a "global" one, as it only has a 58 percent connectivity rating.
Tokyo is now an established transnational center, given the "breadth and depth of financial services" it has, though it lacks the "required global connectivity."
Seoul, though being a "well diversified" financial center, does not have sufficient "depth of coverage in most sectors to be considered a leader," the report said.
There is still a long way to go before mainland cities including Shanghai and Beijing become "truly a tycoon in the global financial market," as they must improve their breadth and depth, said Zhao Xijun, deputy director of the School of Finance at Renmin University of China.
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