Shenzhen's ambitious plan to turn Qianhai, a 15-square-kilometre development zone, into 'the Manhattan of the Pearl River Delta' has made an inroad with the opening of its over-the-counter stock exchange last week.
But with many of its proposed economic reforms either stalled or rejected by Beijing last month, the pioneering zone may still have much lobbying of the central government to do for support.
The proposals stalled or rejected included plans to establish new banks focusing on online banking, a commodities futures exchange, a reinsurance transaction centre and a pilot debt-for-equity scheme, according to Shenzhen government documents obtained by Caixin magazine and The Southern Metropolis News.
Shenzhen dumped nearly all of its bold political-reform plans for Qianhai in June and told the development zone to focus only on its economy. A final version of Qianhai's administrative regulation, approved by the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen People's Congress, deleted almost all the experimental measures that promised to learn from Hong Kong's experience.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission told Shenzhen that many mainland provinces or cities had also applied to set up a commodities futures exchange, but it is unlikely that the State Council will approve a new exchange months after announcing a campaign to clean up rampant and unregulated trading venues, in order to prevent financial risks. The mainland has three commodities futures exchanges - in Shanghai, Dalian and Zhengzhou . At least 14 other cities are vying to set up the fourth.
Qianhai also needs to compete with 11 other comprehensive experimental zones endorsed by the State Council, including Nansha in Guangzhou and Hengqin in Zhuhai, for preferential financial policies from Beijing.
