The 2017 Citi-Fudan University Banking Courses opening ceremony was held on October 10th at Fudan School of Management.
Ms. Christine Lam, CEO, Citi China, Prof. Lu Xiongwen, Dean of Fudan School of Management, as well as over 100 Fudan MBA students and teachers attended the event.
After the opening ceremony, Ms. Christine Lam presented a lecture-- An Overview of Banking in China to unveil the 2017 program.
As the first financial institution to sponsor Fudan’s “On China” program, Citi China has been working jointly with Fudan School of Management for 16 years. For the past 16 years, more than 100 senior managers from Citibank China have been invited to this program as guest speakers, sharing their marketing strategy, industry insights, professional and personal experience to over 1000 Fudan MBA students, who have been inspired a lot from the lectures.
Dean Lu Xiongwen, on behalf of Fudan University, made a welcoming speech at the opening ceremony, in which he recognized the accomplishment of the past 16 years of cooperation based on the healthy relationship built by both sides. Mr. Lu also expressed appreciation for Citi’s support to the business education at Fudan. According to him, on the one hand, the Citi-Fudan Banking Courses have “diversified Fudan’s business education by offering a special way for students to better understand the banking economy.” On the other hand, he pointed out, the program, focusing on the future development of China’s economy, has promoted the professional training of talents. The program will offer a good platform for young graduates who are looking for a job or developing their career, Mr. Lu added.
In her speech, Ms. Christine Lam pointed out that China had now become the world’s second largest economy and its growth rate had remained very fast, which would influence the global economy on a larger scale. According to her, Citi has now developed branches in over 160 countries and districts around the world.
China is a key strategic market for Citi, which made the joint program even more important for Citi. The program, offering a platform where students can exchange ideas with the experienced senior managers from Citi, has brought great inspiration to the students who are going to make contributions to the society in a couple of years.
At the closing of the ceremony, Ms. Christine Lam was awarded the certification of banking course from Fudan. Then, Ms. Lam gave the first lecture of this year’s program-- An Overview of Banking, sharing Citi’s perspective on China’s banking industry. In the lecture, Ms. Lam analysed the current situation and future trend of China’s social and economic development. She also shared Citi China’s experience in decision-making according to the developing trend of the market and the governmental policies.
Macro Economy Faces Near Term Challenges
Recently the slowing down of GDP growth rate in China leads to the economic restructuring and balancing at a new stage. It is unreasonable to expect an economy at this huge size to continue to grow at a double-digit pace. In Ms. Lam’s opinion, the growth rate at about 7% is healthy and certainly can generate enough business opportunity for the banking industry.
Experts forecast that the size of China’s economy would exceed the US to be the largest in one and a half decades. Nowadays, bond market share size of China ranks 3rd, following US and Japan. However, compared to them, China’s participation in overseas investment is far from satisfying, therefore China still has a huge potential.
China, the Window to Future – Increasing Affluence in a Rapidly Digitized Market
Living in Shanghai, you will notice the advanced trend of digitization. A colleague of Lam once told a story to his friends in the US. He said he did an experiment by leaving his wallet at home for a couple of days. He could still get things done including going to work, having lunch, buying coffee, booking tickets on his phone. “He thought it as an experiment. It is my everyday life.” Ms. Christine Lam said. Most newspapers have been replaced by digital media here. What people are seeing in China today in terms of digitization is a window to see into the future—the same thing will happen in the rest of world sooner or later.
Citi is Positioned to Effectively Capture the Growth Trend
The number of Chinese companies ranked in the Fortune 500 are 115 in 2017, accounting for about 20% of the total number. To keep pace with this, Citi promotes its outbound business and provides full-scale service in key markets around the world.
In domestic market, with the rapid development of urbanization, Citi has developed banking subsidiaries in 13 cities around the country, delivering convenient services with high-quality to enterprise and individual customers.
As digitalization is sweeping through the country, Citi puts its focus on digital service through a series of cooperation including developing creative, high-quality financial service in partnership with Wechat and Alipay.
