City of London explores deeper ties with Lujiazui Shanghai

Shanghai's Lujiazui district, called "the Wall Street of the Orient," is attracting more foreign investors and business owners to move in thanks to CHINA's new Foreign Investment Law.

The law provides certainty for foreign companies with an investment negative list. Areas that are prohibited shrunk from 190 in 2013 to just 45 last year. As a result, the city of London - the one square mile center of England's capital - and Lujiazui see a greater chance for deeper collaboration.

Representatives from several British fin-tech companies have made pitches to their Chinese counterparts in Lujiazui. Peter Estlin, Lord Mayor of the City of London who led the delegation, commented that CHINA is a huge market economy with a fantastic customer base, adding that the country has a great set of large companies and hope for more opportunities.

“Obviously the recent foreign investment law is a good example of that: encouraging more investment into CHINA… And again it's that collaboration in terms of sharing of knowledge, sharing of ideas to create a win-win,” said Estlin.

The Lord Mayor added the UK could join hands with CHINA in the global governance of these new financial sectors since CHINA is seen as one of the global leaders in financial technologies.

"As we develop the rules over the Internet, over data, over intellectual property, international taxation, even contractual certainty and contractual arrangements, all of these are not catered for in the existing WTO arrangements. So CHINA and the UK could be a great example where we start to lay the foundations for 21st century WTO rule, maybe a WTO mark two," he cited.

Lujiazui area with less than 30 years of history still has a long way to develop. Experts said that the region needs to continue opening its business sectors as it strives to be among the world's top business and financial districts.