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Thread: WashingtonPost-Financial Hubs See an Opening Up at the Top

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[quote=GUEST18186,328403]"This applies to the people on Wall Street, including the ones that have been laid off," Shi said. "They are the ones that Shanghai needs very much."

Jenny Li, a headhunter who has more than 50 clients in the financial services field, said all of them are scrambling to recruit people laid off from troubled Wall Street firms. A few years ago, many of those same people would probably have dismissed such offers, but today, China is seen as "the last party of the world economy," said Li, who works for Hewitt Associates.

Robert Theleen, chairman of ChinaVest, a U.S.-run merchant bank with offices in Shanghai, said that what defines a great financial center may be changing as a result of the turmoil on Wall Street.

"If you look at financial centers in the past, one of the words that come into mind will be freedom: freedom of movement, freedom of ideas and freedom of information. In that regard, I think Shanghai is behind," he said.

However, Theleen said, "maybe after the financial crisis in New York, freedom will be less important than security and safety." He said he believes this will give Shanghai a huge advantage.

In November, Mayor Han Zheng said his goal was to have the infrastructure needed to become a world finance hub ready by 2010 and to have "achieved the status" by 2020. The city called in international consultants, including former World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn, to help.

Last week, China's State Council approved plans to start to allow margin lending and short-selling of stocks. This contrasts with moves by regulators in the United States and Europe to ban short-selling to try to stabilize prices.

For all the posturing by emerging financial cities, however, some observers contend that New York still has numerous advantages and that the expertise it took more than a century to develop cannot be matched overnight.

"There will be some diversification away from the U.S., surely," said Surjit Bhalla, head of Oxus Fund Management, an economic research firm in New Delhi. "Will people invest in Dalal Street instead of Wall Street? No. The preeminence of Wall Street as a major center is not under threat."

Correspondents Blaine Harden in Tokyo, Rama Lakshmi in New Delhi, Philip P. Pan in Moscow, Craig Whitlock in Berlin and Juan Forero in Caracas; special correspondent Karla Adam in London; and researchers Wu Meng and Crissie Ding in Shanghai contributed to this report.

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