The turning point for Guangdong's finance industry came in 2004 when governor Huang Huahua announced for the first time that Guangzhou and Shenzhen should be developed into 'regional financial centres', according to senior officials.
They said the province then started to hasten steps to establish the industry last year and set the goal of making itself 'a powerful finance province'.
In June, Guangdong founded its first financial services district in the Foshan area of Nanhai, a critical step towards this goal.
The 1.5 square kilometre district has been designed mainly for banks, insurance companies and other financial firms to set up their data, back-up and training centres.
Ni Quanhong, the director of the Foshan Financial Services Office, said Guangdong followed international practice to guarantee data safety by setting up the support centres in separate locations.
To learn more from global experience, Mr Ni said representatives from the office would soon visit Dublin, Ireland, where the financial services industry had helped boost the city.
