Sectors

CHINA - Tianjin plots financial re-launch

Date: 26 Sep 2007

Thanks to its patronage by powerful politicians, the industrial port city has set its sights on regaining global prominence on the back of unfettered development and a growing economy. It has applied to host China's third major stock exchange and is acting as a test case for domestic investors buying unlimited Hong Kong securities directly. Elliot Wilson assesses the city's aspirations to become a major financial hub.

Every Chinese leader strives to leave an architectural legacy, often in the form of the creation or re-emergence of a great industrial city. Deng Xiaoping, who opened China to the global market place in 1979, left behind the gaudy commercialism of Shenzhen; his successor, Jiang Zemin, bequeathed the booming eastern seaport of Shanghai.

The country's present leadership, led by President Hu Jintao, has looked farther north, to Tianjin. A once-grand metropolis, the city – called "Heaven's Ford" in Chinese – is gaining a new lease of life as a major seaport serving Beijing and a logistics and manufacturing hub. More surprisingly, it could become China's third major financial centre, after Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Tianjin may not be a name that registers with many international observers, but that was not always the case. In the early 19th century, the city was partitioned and owned by no fewer than...

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