Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is bringing its quality financial products and services to the fourth China International Import Expo, focusing on international procurement, investment promotion, people-to-people exchanges and open collaboration, said Zhang Weiwu, senior executive vice-president of the bank.

 

Since January, ICBC has organized 13 promotion and matchmaking events for the fourth CIIE, attracting 1,000 enterprises and institutions from more than 20 countries and regions, and successfully brought the CIIE corporate participation from an additional 10 countries such as Angola, Tunisia, Luxembourg and Colombia.

 

As an innovative servicing initiative, ICBC has provided an area of 600 square meters in the food and agricultural products exhibition area with full-fledged business support including a dedicated multilingual team to 50 overseas exporters from 22 countries and regions, which were unable to set up booths by themselves, or send their own representatives over.

 

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, ICBC has been carrying out a dedicated financing project called Spring Financing Program to support key export and import companies and foreign-funded enterprises that have been affected. The bank's cross-border platform ICBC Business Matchmaker offers a full-process service through cross-border matchmaking and deal execution for companies, to ensure a smooth, stable and uninterrupted industrial chain and supply chain with all-weather cross-border financial services.

 

Leveraging the CIIE platform, ICBC has released a batch of innovative and intelligent products in response to the financial needs for cross-border trade and investment. Take the "Single Window" platform that connects with customs as an example.

 

Through this platform alone, the bank has topped its peers in helping execute an accumulative cross-border settlement of over $14 billion for importers and exporters.

 

To better meet the demands of exhibitors and buyers heading to the fourth CIIE, as the CIIE's comprehensive cooperation partner, ICBC has released its customized financial service package for the fourth CIIE, featuring intelligent accounts and cash management, fast remittance, payment and settlement, comprehensive financing solutions, optimal risk hedging tools, virtual business promotion services and a digital all-scenario community.

 

During this year's CIIE, for the first time, ICBC will introduce the digital renminbi, or e-CNY, and has set up a National Exhibition and Convention Center store into ICBC e-Mall, the bank's own e-commerce platform, as an effort to enrich the servicing scenarios for the digital financial community that now covers smart livelihood, digital government procedures, empowered businesses and peer cooperation. With an upgrade in financial services, the bank has also set up an intelligent customer service system. Adding 10 currencies, the bank now supports foreign exchange sales and settlement in 45 currencies.

 

The ICBC Business Matchmaker platform has been upgraded into the generation 2.0 and will be presented to visitors at the CIIE, providing one-stop and whole-process financial services combining communication, service, trade and operation.

 

ICBC will hold two supporting activities during the fourth CIIE.

 

One is a parallel session of the Hongqiao International Economic Forum on "Green Finance Facilitates Sustainable Development", jointly hosted by the CIIE Bureau, the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) and ICBC.

 

Leading think tanks, senior executives in global financial institutions and multinational companies, and members from the Belt and Road Bankers Roundtable will share their viewpoints at the forum.

 

The other is the China Europe CEO Summit, an official CIIE side event, which invites Chinese and European political and business leaders, along with China-Europe Business Council, to discuss China-Europe green and digital partnerships.

 

"ICBC will stand firm in support for the real economy even in times of hardship, and back it in our full capacity.

 

"At ICBC, we consider it our mission and responsibility as a big financial player to serve the CIIE. We will, as always, pool all the resources in the group to continue our delivery of premium services this year," Zhang said.