SHANGHAI, May 15 (Xinhua) -- The Xinhua News Agency, China's state wire service, Friday began construction on its financial service headquarters building in Shanghai.

    The move came as China plans to make Shanghai a global financial center by 2020 to complement the country's economic strength and the international status of its currency.

    The headquarters building of the China Finance Corporation (CFC) is in Lujiazui, Pudong New Area, Shanghai's finance and trade center.

    Li Congjun, President of Xinhua, said the move was one big step to support the fast development of financial economy in Shanghai and also a big step for Xinhua to improve its own financial service.

    Richard Yorke, President of HSBC China, said as the world's third-largest economy, China is playing a more important role on the world stage, and the whole world is closely watching its economic developments.

    Yorke said it is therefore important to have an authoritative and professional financial new platform that transmits China's economic information to the global financial markets in a timely and accurate way.

    Andrew Au, President of Citibank China, said for any well-run financial market, it is imperative to have financial information transmitted in a timely and transparent manner.

    The service ended the monopoly of China's high-end market for financial information and trading by foreign financial information service providers.

    The CFC runs the self-developed, computer terminal-based financial information service, called "Xinhua 08". The service went into operation in September 2007 and is used by major financial institutions and companies throughout the country.

    The system provides up-to-date news and information on domestic and overseas currency, capital, foreign exchange, gold and futures markets as well as different industries, including metals, energy and real estate.

    It also provides real-time data on more than 20 major domestic and overseas exchanges, prices of the products at major financial institutions, domestic and overseas economic and customs data, and self-developed financial analysis models.