Shanghai has become the permanent site of the Bund Summit, a forum sponsored by Alipay, Ant Financial's payment tool, and Alibaba Group.

The annual summit is expected to become the city's name card and play a key role to promote its image of a financial technology (fintech) center.

Shanghai has been brave enough to launch new fintech services in the past 20 years, and was the first city in China to realize "one-card" for subway and ferry, online electricity payments and new retail formats such as Hema Fresh stores.

Smart phones change people's life

Over the past decade, the mobile internet has grown rapidly. A smart phone is a standard necessity nowadays.

In 2018, a new form of public transport appeared in Shanghai, where residents could simply download a metro app and scan their way in and out of stations without having to carry a transport card.

With the help of Alipay's technology, it took less than 10 months for Shanghai metro to upgrade all the subway gates and make the technology available for passengers.

Small mobile phones loaded with digital solutions are making life easier for more and more Shanghai residents. At the same time, they also bring entrepreneurial opportunities.

Zhu Jijun, a so-called "QR code entrepreneur" currently runs two children's libraries in the city. A two-dimensional code resulting from digital management transformation not only helped him to solve the cash-flow problem, but also allowed him to obtain multidimensional fintech services including marketing, loans, financial management, insurance, credit purchasing and business analysis.

Fintech enhances Shanghai's global influence

The settling of the bund conference in Shanghai not only demonstrates a forward-looking and international influence, but also says that Shanghai is not only the Shanghai of the Yangtze River Delta region but also influences all of China.

Shanghai aims to become a globally competitive fintech center in five years, according to a guideline issued by its municipal government.

According to the guideline, Shanghai authorities will enhance research and development in areas such as big data, artificial intelligence, blockchains, cloud computing, 5G and quantum computing.

The municipality will cultivate about 20 leading fintech companies with international recognition, and launch about 50 innovative projects. It will also unify supervising fintech standards across the Yangtze River Delta.

The banks of the Huangpu River in Huangpu district, Shanghai, on April 24, 2015. [Photo provided to http://en.sww.sh.gov.cn]