Business Economy

The urban and rural markets in Hubei are sound, stable and in order. The commodity circulation is prosperous and brisk. The main body of market presents a pluralistic development. The buying market has gradu- ally taken shape. The purchasing power of the urban and rural residents continuously increases. Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, is an important business city in central China. She has won a good name, "The goods will be activated once arriving at Wuhan".

The markets are full of variety of commodities. Shopping centers, super markets, various special wholesale markets, large and middle size hotels, restaurants, storehouses, transportation companies, enter-prises producing food, clothes, business machines, etc. are scattered all over the province. They contribute to the commodity distribution networks with multi-level and multi-structure.

The shares of some large business and trade enterprises in Hubei such as Wuhan Business Group, Central-south Business Group, Zhongbai Group and Hanshang Group have already been listed at the stock markets. A group of comprehensive shopping centers such as Carrefour, Asia Trade Plaza, Wangfujing have started their business one after another. Moreover, McDonald's and KFC add some exotic elements to the prosperous economy of Hubei.

The well-known small goods market in Hanzheng Street is an important distributing cen- ter of small goods in central China. Innumerable businessmen flock there every day. Jianghan Pe- destrian Mall, a century-old business street, is a combination of shopping, leisure and travelling. Some folk sculptures, for example, "Selling Water", "Selling Dried Noodles", "Playing the Chess", etc. stand in the street. The travelers may feel like entering a hyper open-air market.

Financial Industry

The financial organizations of Hubei, in the process of reform, have been developing steadily. A reasonably patterned financial organization system has been established with People's Bank of China as the leader, with the state-owned wholly-funded business banks as the main body, and with the co-existence of policy financial organizations, share-holding business banks, ur- ban business banks, foreign capital banks and other non-bank financial organizations.

People's Bank of China Wuhan Branch is the agency of People's Bank of China. It supervises, in an all-round way, the busi- ness activities of the financial organizations in Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi Provinces. The national business banks in Hubei include: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank, Everbright Bank, Minsheng Bank, Huaxia Bank, China Trust Bank, etc. Policy banks include Agricultural Development Bank, Development Bank Wuhan Branch, the Representative Division of import and Ex- port Bank, etc. Urban commercial banks and credit cooperatives are also scattered in cities and rural areas. There are three large security companies, namely, Changjiang, Wuhan and Three Gorges. The insurance companies include People's Insurance Company of China, Life Insurance Company of China, Pacific Insurance Company, Ping An Insurance Company, Taikang Life Insurance Company.