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Shanghai's Pudong, an emerging financial and trade zone, has drawn an increasing number of overseas banks as China quickens its pace to enter the World Trade Organization.
Official statistics indicate that 47 overseas financial institutions have already opened subsidiaries in Pudong.
Seung Yu Kim, president and chief executive of the Hana Bank of the Republic of Korea (ROK), said that Shanghai is expected to become an international financial center in the near future and having a branch here will be conducive to expanding overseas business.
Hana's branch in Pudong has just become operational. It is the first ROK bank in China after the Asian financial crisis broke out in 1997.
Hana has been engaged in loans amounting to 200 million US dollars to China. Last year, it established cooperative ties with the Pudong Development Bank.
When meeting with Kim, Shanghai vice mayor Zhou Yupeng expressed his hope that Hana may get licensed to do renminbi (Chinese yuan) business as soon as possible and better accelerate Sino-ROK economic and trade cooperation.
(Xinhua 11/23/2000)
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