Gong Zheng meets with the Lord Mayor of London to deepen cooperation in green finance, offshore finance, financial technology, and other areas

Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng met today (March 27) with a delegation led by London’s City Mayor, Lian Shuan. Gong Zheng said that finance is one of Shanghai’s most important urban functions, and that Shanghai has basically built an international financial center that is commensurate with China’s economic strength and the international standing of the renminbi. We are now intensively implementing high-level financial opening to the outside world, and we will continue to strengthen the competitiveness and influence of Shanghai’s international financial center. The City of London is a globally renowned international center for finance, business, and the economy. Since the two cities established friendly exchanges in 1996, they have carried out extensive and pragmatic cooperation in specialized fields such as financial investment, services, and training, yielding positive results. We hope that, with the 30th anniversary of establishing friendly ties as an opportunity, the two cities will further strengthen exchanges and deepen cooperation in areas such as green finance, offshore finance, and financial technology, to achieve a higher level of mutual benefit and win-win outcomes. We look forward to both sides jointly building a multi-tier green finance institutional framework and a diversified set of green financial products, stepping up cooperation in cross-border investment and financing and in mutual connectivity between financial markets, exploring and promoting the application of cutting-edge technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence in the financial sector, further expanding the boundaries of financial services, and unleashing the vitality of financial innovation. Lian Shuan said this is my third visit to Shanghai within 12 months. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of friendly exchanges between the two cities, the two cities planted a magnolia together. Over the past 30 years, the City of London and Shanghai have worked hand in hand, boosting two-way investment significantly and helping support economic development in both countries. Looking ahead, the two cities have many shared development goals and concepts. We hope that both sides will further deepen cooperation in areas such as renminbi internationalization, green finance, and interconnectivity between capital markets, and achieve a higher level of prosperous development. British Consul General in Shanghai, Bao Maixiu, attended the meeting. (Shanghai Daily)