By Sok Lak
China’s Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), one of the largest banks in China, On November 30th, officially opened its branch in Phnom Penh to bridge Sino-Cambodia economic and trade cooperation, and also to boost business transactions which are booming here.
ICBC is one of the four biggest banks in China, which is run by state-owned commercial banks. The ICBC here turned its 30th commercial bank into a bigger enterprise that makes finance and banking in Cambodia more fulgent and gives the Kingdom its second Chinese bank operating here after Cambodia turned to attracting investors in its financial sector. The first Chinese bank, the Bank of China, launched in May, also focused on loans for expanding agriculture and rice productivity in order to broaden milled rice exports.
“The establishment of this branch was not only an embodiment of ICBC’s confidence in the future economic development of Cambodia but also showed my bank’s commitment to bridge Sino-Cambodia economic and trade cooperation,” Jiang Jianqing, ICBC Board Chairman, said during the opening ceremony of its bank in Phnom Penh.
He added that China and Cambodia have long benefited from a friendly, sincere, trustworthy and win-win partnership. Both countries have unique comparative advantages even with a recognition that natural resources can supplement each other inter-and intra-industries, yielding a large space where wide ranges of fields for bilateral economic and trade cooperation that will also bring numerous business opportunities that will brighten the future.
The report from the event said: In 2010, the bilateral volume of trade reached US1.442 billion, a growth of 52.6 percent. In only the first half of 2011, the figure has hiked to US$ 912 million, an increase of 82 percent.
“The closer economic and trade cooperation between the two countries has provide a wide space for ICBC’s development in Cambodia,” he stressed, adding that the new branch will be a comment on the ICBC’s Group’s advantages in building customer base, funds, networking, and technology, to reinforce its cooperation with Chinese enterprises in Cambodia, and support infrastructure development in fields like communication, transportation and electricity.
 | ||
|
H.E Keat Chhon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, said the presence of the bank would build more public confidence in Cambodia’s banking industry. He asked the bank to focus on loans especially in the agricultural sector with an emphasis on the rice sector so the government of Cambodia can achieve its target of exporting one million tons of milled rice in 2015. H.E. Chea Chanto, General governor of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), said the bank is a bilateral enterprise that will contribute to the development of Cambodia’s economy.
“I believe that the bank would bring new technology and innovative banking products to develop the Cambodian banking industry.”
By the end of September 2011, the customers’ deposits in the banking sector grew by 17 percent to US$ 4.72 billion while the customer credits increased by 23 percent to US$ 4.04 billion as 1.43 million people have their money deposited in Cambodia’s banks and about 1.3 million people have borrowed money from the bank, he stressed.
Pan Guang Xue, the Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia, said that ICBC will contribute to the development of economic and trade ties between China and Cambodia. “The bilateral trade volume between China and Cambodia had reached US$ 1.6 billion in the first nine months of this year, an increase of 7.5 percent.” On the investment side, from 1994 to September 2011, there have been nearly 400 Chinese investment projects in Cambodia with the cumulative investment reaching nearly US $9 billion.
At the end of September 2001, it has established 234 institutions in 31 foreign countries and regions, forming a global service platform covering the major international financial centers and China’s economic and trade partners.
No comments:
Post a Comment