Chongqing municipality in Southwest China will invest 30 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) to become a financial center in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in 2015.

Its ambition was self-evident at the ceremony to lay the foundation stone for the construction of the Chongqing Financial Center on Monday.

It is the first commercial real estate project launched in the Jiangbeizui central business district in the city, where the Yangtze and Jialing rivers converge.

Office blocks spread over 300,000 sq m will form the core of the financial center in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, said Luo Guang, deputy secretary-general of the Chongqing municipal government.

Luo said there were two advantages of beginning construction of the center at the moment.

First, Chongqing is less affected by the international economic crisis than China's coastal regions.

In the first quarter of this year, its gross domestic product rose by 9 percent over the same period last year. The growth rate was much higher than the national average.

Second, the municipality has the most solid and complete industrial base in Western part of China.

As Chongqing boasts a strong industrial base, the idea is to build it into a financial center featuring investment and financing, Lu said.

According to Chongqing Mayor Wang Hongju, his city will seek balanced development of banking, securities and insurance.

(China Daily April 24, 2009)