The appointment of Su Ning as new head of the central bank's Shanghai headquarters has increased speculation about the city's slowly progressing program to establish itself as an international financial center, according to local analysts.

Su, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, was appointed to the new job last week, replacing Xiang Junbo, who has taken a new position as head of the Agricultural Bank of China.

At a meeting after his appointment, Su pledged to push forward the Shanghai international financial center program and elevate the Shanghai headquarters to a higher level.

Sixty-year-old Su, known for his expertise in monetary policy, is still expected to spend most of his time in Beijing.

He is 10 years older than his predecessor Xiang and is even one year older than his boss, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan.

Su became central bank deputy governor in December 2003 after four years as the deputy head of the budget committee of the National People's Congress, the national legislature.

Su began his career in public service in 1982 at the age of 35, when he joined the State Planning Commission, as it was then called.

Su became well known at the planning commission's economic forecast center by proposing to build power plants near coal mines in Shanxi Province to generate and transmit electricity to other provinces instead of transporting coal.

While Su vows to fuel Shanghai's efforts to develop as an international financial center, analysts believe that the city still has a long way to go to achieve the goal.

"No one has so far recognized Shanghai as an international financial center, not even ourselves," Pan Zhengyan, deputy director of the Shanghai Finance Research Center, was quoted as saying in a recent edition of International Finance.

In fact, the market share of Shanghai's banking industry in the country is only about 6-7 percent. The share is actually shrinking rather than growing, according to Pan.

While Shanghai has become home to more national financial markets and more foreign banks, the country's four largest banks and the largest insurer are still headquartered in Beijing, making Shanghai only a secondary center.

(China Daily July 18 2007)