On March 10, Huaqiao International Service Business Park, China Data Group, Capgemini and Centrin Data Systems jointly organized the Beijing Finance Back-Office Business Salon at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, to discuss opportunities and development trends in the financial back-office business during the financial crisis. The Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Commerce Lin Zheying, Secretary of Municipal Party Committee Zhang Guohua, Deputy Secretary of Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Suzhou Guan Aiguo, Municipal Standing Committee member and Director of the Administration Committee of the Huaqiao Economic Development Zone Ren Xueyuan and Vice Mayor of Kunshan Huang Jian, as well as guests from companies such as Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Everbright Bank, IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers gathered at the salon.

Zhang Guohua explained three aspects, the advantages of the Huaqiao financial BPO industry, its future development goals and the current state of the BPO industry. Zhang stated that since reform and opening-up 30 years ago, Kunshan’s economic comprehensive strength has been growing, and Kunshan is emerging as an industrial and commercial city. The strong advantage of Kunshan’s manufacturing development has laid a solid foundation for its service outsourcing industry. This year, despite the impact of the financial crisis, the city’s main economic indicators remained stable and have shown relatively fast growth, providing strong support to the development of the financial BPO industry. Huaqiao is adjacent to Shanghai, within the Shanghai peninsula, and so has a unique geographic advantage. At the same time, Huaqiao also has excellent transportation advantages. The Shanghai Transit Line will be extended to Huaqiao and the Shanghai-Nanjing Intercity Railway and the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway will both run through Huaqiao.

Zhang said that as the country's first modern service-oriented development zone, Huaqiao has received much attention and concerns from the central leadership during its development and construction. The strong support Huaqiao has received from ministries and the provincial government has created excellent conditions for its development. In the next step, Huaqiao will continue to strengthen its efforts in introducing talents to entrepreneurs, offering policy support, providing quality services to enterprises, and creating a livable ecological environment to build China's first-class financial BPO industry base.

General Manager of IBM Asia-Pacific’s financial division Li Jiang, Deputy Director-General of Foreign Investment Department of the Ministry of Commerce Lin Zheying, professor at the Capital University of Economic and Business Xia Youfu, General Manager of the Credit Card Center of China Everbright Bank Dai Bing, Aegon-CNOOC Business Division CEO Peng Bo, McKinsey Consulting Partner Peng Zhuangzhuang, Huaqiao Economic Development Zone Director Ren Xueyuan, China Construction Bank Deputy General Manager of Product Quality Zhao Zhihong and Director of PwC Consulting Quan Xiujie all spoke during the meeting. They each expressed their insights on the development opportunities of financial back-office business during the financial crisis, the impact of the financial crisis on the real economy, development and issues to be addressed related to financial back-office businesses, as well as Huaqiao’s advantage in the development of the financial back-office business.

After the salon, a reception dinner was held, during which Guan Aiguo gave a welcome speech. Guan said that by relying on its advantages of location, policies and low costs, Huaqiao has identified a clear position in the industry, with its financial BPO companies cluster picking up and a relatively complete industry chain of financial BPO being formed. During the salon, each business leader gave their insights, valuable advice and suggestions for the development of Huaqiao, which has further strengthened Huaqiao’s confidence in the development of the financial BPO industry.

This is the second financial back-office salon held by the Huaqiao International Service Business Park since the first one was held in Lujiazui in Shanghai last December. Through these financial back-office salons, on the one hand, Huaqiao’s influence in the financial sector is increased; on the other hand, Huaqiao’s financial BPO industry can be further improved by taking expert advice.

Source: Kunshan Daily Page A1  Reporter: Yang Baoping