The city of Guangzhou has 346 financial leasing companies by the end of 2017, which is three times more than that in 2013. The total registered capital of these companies reached more than 100 billion yuan ($15.79 billion).

About 80 percent of these companies settled in Nansha district, which has become a financial leasing hub in South China.

Guangzhou provided more support for the industry last year. A total of 41.69 million yuan was granted to 21 aircraft and ship leasing projects and over 80 enterprises involving financial leasing.

Among the 346 companies, 330 are foreign-invested. With a total registered capital of 100 billion yuan, they contributed more than 600 million yuan in tax to Guangzhou last year.

In 2017, an extra 85 foreign financial leasing projects were set up in Guangzhou with registered capital of $1.47 billion. By the end of 2017, the municipal authority approved 375 foreign financial leasing projects with registered capital of $17.13 billion.

Twenty-six aircraft leasing projects worth $1.68 billion were launched last year, up 116 percent year on year. In addition, the first offshore aircraft leasing business in Guangdong Free Trade Zone and the country's first cross-border US dollar ship leasing assets transaction were conducted in Guangzhou.

Nansha is building itself into a financial leasing hub for Guangzhou, as the district is home to more than 80 percent of the city's financial leasing companies. The contract amount of Nansha's financial leasing enterprises is expected to exceed 170 billion yuan in 2017, with new added contract amount reaching 80 billion yuan, up 10 percent compared with 2016. Financial leasing is quickly becoming the district's new tax source.

Currently, there are 22 financial leasing firms whose registered capital reach above 1 billion yuan and three with registered capital surpassing 2 billion yuan in Guangzhou.