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18 | International Investment
Guernsey –
full of Far Eastern
promise
There are indications of growing ties between the Island
and the world’s most rapidly growing financial superpower
by Peter Niven, Chief Executive of Guernsey
Finance, the promotional agency for the
Island’s finance industry
What has Guernsey been doing that our success will be in the longer term. But ing the cities as part of the Lord Mayor of the
to promote its financial services at the same time we are confident that we have City of London’s delegation to the region.
offering in China and how the building blocks in place to secure
successful has it been so far? substantial flows from China in the future, Building on strong foundations
including through Guernsey investment funds Our experiences led us to identify fiduciary
Looking back now it is quite remarkable to which we will be increasingly promoting in the services as a product area where there was a
think that it is not much more than a year ago region during 2009. particular demand in China for something new
since Guernsey began to promote its financial from international finance centres. During
services offering in China. In the twelve or so Starting out October a delegation from Guernsey spent a
months that have passed we have made It was at the end of 2007 that we appointed week in Hong Kong and then a week in
significant progress in raising our profile Chinese national Wendy Weng to run our Shanghai promoting the Island’s trust and
within political circles and among the business Guernsey office in Shanghai. This was officially company expertise.
community, most notably in Shanghai. opened when a delegation of senior govern- The positive response to both the Guernsey
Two cases illustrate this point: firstly, in ment officials and business leaders from the Registrar of Companies and the Island’s practi-
November 2008 Tu Guangshao, the Vice-Mayor Island visited the city in March 2008. tioners on the delegation shows how our fidu-
of Shanghai, led a delegation to Guernsey and They held a series of meetings with both ciary offering has captured the imagination of
announced that the city would be using the industry firms already based in the city and professionals in Shanghai. In particular, we
Island as a model for its own development as a representatives from key institutions such as have seen a growing recognition of how
financial services centre. Secondly, during the the Shanghai Stock Exchange. In addition, this Guernsey companies can be used to provide
last quarter of 2008 some of our (particularly was the first occasion that we met Vice-Mayor structures for many different types of products,
trust and company) practitioners reported new Tu. including funds.
business from China in the pipeline. During the summer of 2008 I was able to It was during this visit to Shanghai in
We are aware that despite this progress it is further raise our growing profile in Shanghai as October that Vice-Mayor Tu accepted an invita-
not going to be a case of ‘jam tomorrow’ and well as develop our presence in Beijing by visit- tion from Guernsey’s Chief Minister Lyndon
April 2009 Investment International www.investmentinternational.com
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