Shanghai welcomes financial experts from around the world to help build the city's reputation as a financial hub, Mayor Han Zheng said on Saturday night.

It will continue to develop the financial sector environment, Han told guests at a dinner marking the opening of a major financial symposium.

The financial sector accounts for about 10 percent of the city's gross domestic product with its clusters of international and domestic businesses.

The city is already home to 17 locally incorporated foreign banks, including big names like HSBC and Citigroup. It also embraces about half of the overseas-invested insurers in China, including the joint ventures of AXA, MetLife and Allianz.

Han said the city recognized there would be both opportunities and challenges in the future development of its international financial center status. But he said the proof was already evident in many achievements.

The established presence of overseas financial giants in the city had already helped provide a sound basis to grow its credentials to become an international center, Han said.

The central government has made it a national strategy to support Shanghai's growth in the sector.

It is already a strongly developed financial center, being home to China's major stock market and the gold, futures, and interbank bond markets.

The symposium was co-hosted by China Development Research Foundation and Harvard Law School.

(Shanghai Daily September 7, 2008)