Shanghai deserved to rank among top 10 financial centers, the Lord Mayor of the City of London, David Lewis, said in Shanghai yesterday.

But to match centers like London and New York, it needed to boost market liberalization, attract more global financial professionals, create a stronger corporate bond market and show greater willingness for foreign direct investment.

"Shanghai deserves to be among the world's top 10 financial centers, because it has a developed infrastructure, a recognized brand name and perceptions outside China of what it should be," said Lewis, who led a business delegation to Shanghai to promote partnership between the two cities.

Shanghai ranked the 31st on the list of the latest Global Financial Centers Index compiled by the City of London Corporation.

London topped the list, followed by New York and Hong Kong. Beijing was 46th.

"A global financial center is not made of buildings or good traffic, it is made of people. One of Shanghai's shortcomings is that it still has not enough highly skilled financial experts," said Lewis.

About 20,000 people worked in Shanghai's financial industry - a small fraction of London's 350,000.

Shanghai also needed to be more open. Compared with London, where more than 700 foreign companies were listed on the London Stock Exchange, no overseas companies traded on the Shanghai bourse, Lewis said.

Lewis advised Shanghai to boost the corporate bond market and provide more financial resources for companies.

He encouraged Chinese investors to go to London. In the current global economic environment overshadowed by the United States credit issue, commercial properties in Britain were undervalued and the situation would last a few months, he said. The area was now a good choice for foreign investment.

"The UK is quite open for foreign investment, including the state sovereignty fund. So far there is no single case that has convinced me we should adopt a protectionist attitude," Lewis said.

Before the visit to Shanghai, Lewis had led the delegation to Beijing and Tianjin and had met officials of the China Investment Corporation. He declined to give details of the meeting except that CIC may set up a representative office in London.

Also yesterday, the City of London Shanghai Representative Office was officially established, to provide a better communication and information service for Chinese investors.

(Shanghai Daily July 2, 2008)