GUERNSEY is in the process of entering into a memorandum of understanding with the Shanghai government.
Wendy Weng, GuernseyFinance’s representative in China, pictured, outlined details of the MoU while giving an update to stakeholders in the island yesterday.
She expected it to be signed sometime in 2010 but said it was a long process, with the drafts currently being looked at and it requiring the approval of both jurisdictions before it could come into effect.
It will be only the second MoU Shanghai has entered into with a financial centre and will replicate a similar one it has in place with the City of London.
Ms Weng said it was just one of a number of areas the GuernseyFinance team had progressed since establishing a permanent base in the city at the start of 2008.
‘This was initiated by the Shanghai government and will mirror the one with the City of London.
‘It will be about cooperation between our two regimes and the exchanging of information and learning from each other. They would like to learn from us because we have 50 years’ experience as an offshore finance centre, so they are very keen.’
It will also aid Guernsey firms looking to do business in the city and allow regulators from both jurisdictions to practice and learn in the other.
Article posted on 5th November, 2009 - 2.29pm
15 Article Comments
A Memorandum of Understand? Isn’t that the same as the worthless document that the GFSC obtained from Landsbanki’s parent company?
MoU’s are, at best, just a promise to maybe make a promise where there are no penalties if the promises are not kept.
Don’t these people ever learn?
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Aeschylus
No.
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Aeschylus.
No they don’t learn and they expect the public not to either. The extent of the misinformation and spin over the years is starting to unravel their cosy hegemony.
I’ve never known a business with such a collectively blinkered arrogance.
And that’s even before tackling the concept of using taxation as a business lever.
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Aeschylus,
No, that was a Parental Guarantee which is a different thing entirely.
And I see Arnald has to comment with his deranged rhetoric despite no doubt knowing that it is not the same thing at all.
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George
Will we use our new found mutual respect to enquire about their human rights record? Or corporate fraud?
Or shall we just concentrate on those fees?
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It is sad to see so many, including the Guernsey Press it seems, applauding when they see our political and business leaders cozying up to their counterparts in a totalitarian, police state. The Chinese government has very different values from those that would be claimed by those standing for political office in Guernsey.
There are over 60 crimes in China punishable by the death penalty. the number of executions carried out is a state secret. People in China are regularly given long prison sentences for doing things – such as criticizing members of the governing elite – which are considered a right in Guernsey. Every aspect of everyday life is rigidly controlled by the dictatorship.
If we are to have any dealings with this despicable regime, it should be on the basis that any improvement in our relationship should be dependent on concurrent improvement in China’s human rights record. Have our masters taken the opportunity to discuss this with our recent honoured guest.
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Dear George,
Sorry but you’re wrong, not me. No bank will ever issue an actual Guarantee in favour of one of its own subsidiaries. Years ago Lloyds Bank (as it was then) when asked if they would always support any of its subsidiaries if they failed was unable to give an unequivocal response. For that reason, and also for tax reasons (depending on which jurisdiction the parent resides) banks will not offer Guarantees.
The best that the GFSC would ever have expected to receive would be an MoU or a Letter of Comfort or something similar that would not be binding on the parent bank.
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Ted,
Just finished reading ur comment.This is a reply from shanghai.i suggest that u should come to shanghai to experience the local culture .then u will know it’s not that bad as u thought.i cannot deny the part u mentioned about the death sentence still exists here,but u know no govt likes to deprive citizens’ human rights for no reasons. i dont like the death sentence either,but i believe it would not be a barrier against getting more links between the two cities.what’s more, the situation is improving.There are many more freedoms now than there were.the shadows which the history brought to us are fading.
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Ted,
You put it exactly as I see it.Of yes,they have a culture,provided it fits in with the Dictatorship!
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It is well understood why the government is depriving its citizens of their human rights. It is because the oligarchy could not cling onto power if they did not frighten the people into submission.
I accept that things have improved in recent years for the ordinary Chinese people for the same reason that it improved in the Soviet block. The productive inefficiency of the totalitarian system forced the introduction of a more open market economy which can only operate if the state relaxes some of its controls. Unfortunately, power in Russia has become unbalanced and the political oligarchs have been replaced by economic oligarchs and the result is a return to inefficiency.
However, the present Chinese regime, like the former soviet regime, believes that it can still retain totalitarian control while permitting previously forbidden freedoms. Time will tell.
The free peoples of the world should be using what influence they have to accelerate Chinese progress to an open society with at least the basic human rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (to use shorthand). Thus in dealing with the Chinese leaders, we should make it clear that we want to do business but not at the expense of the suffering of millions of ordinary people.
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And the benefit to the Chinese government is???
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Rita.
…’but u know no govt likes to deprive citizens’ human rights for no reasons……the shadows which the history brought to us are fading..’
Really? Perhaps you should go tell that to the Tibetans, then they would be more appreciative of the way that the Chinese Government has driven their spiritual leader out of his own country, and the inhumane, horrific and totally unjustified genocide of their people at the hands of China, using such charming persuasions as enforced abortions and sterilisations.
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Rita
You must be the manager of Guernsey Finance’s Shanghai office. Who else from Shanghai would post on this forum?
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I just remember those pictures of the tanks of the Peoples Liberation Army rolling over and killing those unarmed students in Tianemen Square, something which the Chinese authorities still don’t admit and which they have attempted to airbrush from history. Any comments Rita?
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I’m glad that a number of contributors agree on here that it really is quite distasteful to see our representatives getting friendly with the representatives of a totalitarian dictatorship with a hopeless human rights record, all to earn a few more bucks. We can do without such business. Whatever happened to ethics?
Ted: I think we can pretty much guarantee that our Political Masters have not raised any mention of China’s human rights record in all this. Why would they? It would get in the way of generating more money for the island and there’s nothing more important than the “Greenback” is there?!
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