China [Fintech] Trip Jul & Aug 2019

Arriving in Beijing was not as I expected it would be. The first time I came here was in 2015 and smog that day was so thick that I did not know if we landed or it is just turbulence.

This time the air was very clean and summer promised to be hot. Streets looked somewhat different (construction, reconstruction, and re-reconstruction never stop) and there were some visible changes in daily life brought by the rapid introduction of technology.

The time I spent in China was really great and this is thanks to my family and friends - Yiteng and Shanfeng. I had an opportunity to travel to several cities around China exploring the local tech scene:

• First, it was great to tour several smart cities and science parks across China. These places are often overlooked in the West but they act as important incubation hubs for Chinese and foreign companies (mostly Chinese) supporting them with office space, human resources, housing, tax incentives, and investment. Beijing Future Science Park team (on the photo), for example, is in charge of the area covering 170.6 sq kilometers and hosting hundreds of companies. To put in perspective, Bristol's total area is 110 sq kilometers.
• There are a lot of projects going on around Belt & Road initiative. Kunming which is not well known outside of China is about to become an important transportation hub connecting China to all of the SEA region through the high-speed railway network. Last year we discussed how Belt & Road initiative opens up opportunities for fintech companies at FINTECH Bridge China-UK Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=155UMUviiZE&t=667s

• After the fall of the P2P industry, the government puts banks in charge of SME lending. Previously banks were reluctant to serve SME customers due to high costs and low margins. This, however, is changing as the government wants banks to partner with fintechs in order to cover the gap - fintech companies are expected to act as consultants and technology providers to banks. Joshua Xiang (CTO at CreditEase) and Sean Lei (Director at JD Finance) will discuss the Chinese lending industry in more detail in the upcoming AI Book to be published by Wiley in Q1 2020.
• Finally, I am very pleased to announce that I have joined ISO / TC321 Secretariat set up by The Hangzhou Municipal Market Supervision Bureau and Bluepath City Consulting, which organizes and coordinates the development and revision of standards for the global e-commerce industry. My role will focus on bridging the gap between Secretariat and international partners, bringing more collaboration opportunities.