Industry Clusters in Ningbo Financial Towns Boost Transformation to Become New Economic Engines

The thriving real economy spurred a boom in finance which in turn will bolster its own prosperity. While establishing characteristic towns, local governments, with their own financial resources, fostered several towns featuring finance that evolved into a new economic engine.

Siming financial town is located in the center area of Yinzhou District, extending to the west and east alongside Yinzhou Park. Lines of modern skyscrapers soaredin the town. A small company with only severaldozens of employees there may take charge of billions of dollars. The strong real economy together with rich private capital contributed much to our development, said Yang Jiajia, general manager of Shengshi Investment from Beijing. She added that within less than 2 years in the town, they already had over 1 bilion yuan's capital in hand. And the mother fund of the angel investment, newly-founded in 2015, has been magnified 30 times in volume.

As a rich source of private capital, Yinzhou District has 16 listed companies, 29 enterprises with over 1 billion yuan's annual revenue and 453 with over 100 million. Private enterprises occupied 95% of all the economic entities. Increasing demands for maintenance and proliferation of their assets from a number of companies accelerated the growth of financial investment. Statistics indicated that currently in Yinzhou District, the output of its financial sector has taken up 20% of that of the whole service industry, second only to that of the real estate. And the majority of financial institutions lie in Siming financial town, running the gamut of all kinds of forms like banks, insurance, securities, futures, etc.

To expedite the construction of Siming financial town, Yinzhou District tailored preferential policies for it. We have superior policies with strongersupport and wider coverage, explained Chen Liang, vice director of the District Financial Bureau. To attract talents in finance from home and abroad, the government released relative policies quite competitive in Zhejiang, offering strong support in business registration, land supply, startup subsidies, award for contributions, children's education, etc.

Actually, enterprises that settled in the town valued more the all-pervasive financial atmosphere than its favorable policies. Senpu Information, the only financial institution for information of bonds in Zhejiang, offered overarching information service for governments and enterprises planning to issue bonds. The superiority in enterprises, capital and human resources will provide us with room for significant growth. said KeJingzhe, general manager of the company.

Boosted by the national strategy promoting innovation, Meishan, using its advantages, focused on fostering its finance to penetrate into the modern high-end service industry in recent years. The proactive step laid solid foundation for the rise of its Haiyang financial town. So far, Meishan has gathered over 1500 financial firms of which 17 possess over 5 billion yuan's wealth. And their individual investment is expanding progressively. The mounting scale of investment spurred specialization with the result that a national investment management center for equity investment enterprises is coming into being.

Haishu District is also planning its own financial town, Moon Lake town. What distinguishes it is the reliance on its rich natural and cultural resources. Plenty of courtyards in ancient style are constructed to create a characteristic town with harmonious integration between its finance and culture. The town will highlight the development of all kinds of non-bank financial institutions including PE, VC, etc. with a focus on new financial innovations, said Ou Yiming, chief of Haishu Development and Reform Bureau. He added that they are introducing investment of equity, bonds, securities and financial institutions like private banks to the town, aiming to stimulate healthy growth in the third party payment and internet finance.

The comprehensive transformation and upgrading of Ningbo's economy is gaining speed while innovation of products, technology, commercial activities and business pattern is boosted. It will spawn huge demand for capital and financial products and bring more opportunities and requirements alike for innovation in finance. Officials in the Municipal Financial Bureau said that Ningbo had embarked on deliberation on relative policies for the financial towns to facilitate successful integration and positive interaction between financial capital and industrial capital.

LINK:	http://en.nbwh.gov.cn/art/2016/3/30/art_1325_81464.html...
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