CLOCKWISE FROM
LEFt pAGE tOp:
Huaxin Street
Paradise Walk
shopping area;
Chongqing is
focused around
the confluence
of the Yangtze
and Jialing
rivers; Teng
Hongjun; and
Claude SarrailhThe group opened its first Chongqing store in 2001, a
second in 2003 and has no plans to leave. In fact, it hopes
to expand further within the municipality – which is
twinned with METRO’s German home city of Dusseldorf
- in the coming years.
METRO saw 2 per cent growth across its China
operations last year, which the company credits to its focus
on food safety, an ever-present concern for China’s rising
middle class, and their enthusiasm for the Retail 2.0 era.
METRO has entered a strategic partnership with Alibaba
to facilitate online shopping, is collaborating with third-
party food delivery platforms Ele.me and Meituan, and
communicates with millions of customers over China’s
ubiquitous social media platform WeChat.
“The market has been growing rapidly with huge
potential, and there have been many opportunities for
developing business,” says Claude Sarrailh, president of
METRO China. “The environment for doing business
is good in Chongqing, the government takes economic
growth very seriously, and the business and investment
policies are also favourable for foreign investors.”
Financial services are another component of
Chongqing’s economy, greatly buoyed by foreign direct
investors. HSBC, Standard Chartered, ANZ, Scotiabank,
Deutsche Bank and Citibank all have a footprint in the
city, while preparatory approvals for Fubon Bank were
granted at the start of the year.
America’s Citibank established an office in Shanghai in
1902 and became one of the first international banks to
be locally incorporated in China in 2007. It is now in 13
Chinese cities, including Chongqing, where it arrived in
2009 as part of expansion plans along the Yangtze River
Economic Belt. Citibank too is partnering with Chinese
tech giants such as Alibaba and Tencent – non-financial
intermediaries shaking up the banking landscape. Over
90 per cent of Citi China customers use WeChat for their
daily banking needs, and in 2018 the bank won The Asset
magazine’s Triple A Award for “Best Social Media Banking
Enterprise”.
Having thrown its weight behind digital in China by
way of necessity, Citibank is now looking to export such
practices globally. “Digitisation in China leads the world
in many ways, and many of our successes in China are
being introduced to other parts of the world,” says Teng
Hongjun, executive vice president of Citi China.
Established infrastructure, new business parks and
relatively low tax and operational costs have for years
now proved attractive to foreign companies looking to
invest in this often overlooked part of China. As a result,
the country’s lower-tier cities are increasingly giving their
first-tier counterparts a run for their money. At the close
of 2018, 287 Fortune 500 companies had a presence in
Chongqing, no doubt tempted by housing, labour and land
costs much lower than the megacities of eastern China.
Chongqing’s growth may be slowing along with China’s
economy, but companies that are able to weather the
changing policies, adapt to shifting tastes and adopt new
technologies quickly seem to flourish in this strategic
position along the Yangtze River. “Citi is optimistic
about the development and prospect of China’s Yangtze
River Economic Belt,” says Teng. “We look forward to
contributing to the overall advancement of China.”‘Many of our
successes
in China
are being
introduced
to other
parts of
the world,’
says Teng
Hongjun of
Citi China35destinations