Financial wizards

Financial wizards

Employers usually take a two-way approach to train workers. At ANZ, the company identifies opportunities for talented professionals from other parts of the world to spend time in China on medium-term projects, at the same time providing comprehensive on-the-job training programs and cross-border assignments for local employees.

Further complicating matters is the fact that the financial industry in China is expanding fast, fueled by high economic growth. Experts believe this makes it hard for young people to find a stable career path.

According to Xu Mingqi, a professor at the Institute of World Economy at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, the city suffers from the lack of an open and transparent financial market, a factor he considers more important than its income tax policies or other soft power factors.

"The government should not interfere with the market by adopting administrative methods, such as introducing a preferential tax income. The flow of talented people depends heavily on the market. When Shanghai's financial market is as open and developed as that of New York and Hong Kong, skilled financial workers would surely swarm to the city without additional incentives," Xu said.

The professor also pointed out that the biggest challenge for Shanghai now is not the lack of financial wizards in specific fields, but rather talented people with strategically innovative thinking and professional experience, who could help the government plan and design the financial system.

Academia has sensed the problem. According to Lu Xiongwen, dean of the school of management at Shanghai-based Fudan University, that is exactly why the school introduced two finance-related master programs last year, in cooperation with Princeton University and the University of Los Angeles in the US.

"Shanghai has a long way to go before it has an open financial market. The two programs are structured to prepare financial talent - people who could help design Shanghai's financial market system in the future,,wholesale gucci shoes," Lu said. He added that one-third of the course would not be applicable to Shanghai's financial market because of policy restrictions.