On September 28, the Belt & Road Financial Cooperation and China’s Financial Market Opening-up Forum organized was held by ICBC in Beijing, with attendance of Hu Hao, Vice President of ICBC, Xu Zhong, Director General of Research Bureau of the People’s Bank of China (PBC), relevant heads of China Development Bank, Export-Import Bank of China, and China International Water & Electric Corp., as well as global or Asian-Pacific business leaders of 42 large commercial banks and 12 non-bank financial institutions across the world.

ICBC Vice President Hu Hao said in a speech that during the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held this May, ICBC hosted the Belt and Road Bankers Roundtable, which reached a broad consensus, achieved a series of constructive results, and contributed to the establishment of inter-bank normalized cooperation and negotiation mechanism under the Belt and Road. With faster opening up of China’s financial market, and deeper openness, a number of innovative mechanisms and policy initiatives to attract overseas investors have been introduced. In particular, the implementation of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect, and the official launch of the Mainland-Hong Kong Bond Connect, have provided a convenient way for overseas investors to invest in Chinese stocks or bonds, which have become a milestone in the opening up of China’s financial market. ICBC provides high-quality and efficient services for overseas customers to invest in China’s inter-bank bond market, issue panda bonds, conduct asset management and custody. It is intended to guide the opening up of China’s financial market and boost  multilateral financial exchanges and cooperation.

PBC Director General Xu Zhong introduced recent trend of China’s macroeconomics and the opening up of financial market. He said that as a large economy in the transition period, China should be analyzed as a whole. While focusing on risks, people should not underestimate the resilience and endegeneous strength of China’s economic growth. After years of rapid growth, China’s economy has become enormous, with effects as a big country and big market looming ahead. From the perspective of international economic cooperation, the Belt and Road will help China leverage its comparative advantages and solve major issues of current international economic development.

During the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held this May, the Belt and Road bank cooperation plan and the establishment of normalized cooperation and negotiation mechanism initiated by ICBC, was included in the official results of the summit. It became the only result achieved by commercial bank and the only result achieved by commercial organization in the list. This forum is not only an implementation of inter-bank normalized cooperation and negotiation mechanism under the Belt and Road, but also a thorough discussion on opportunities from the opening up of China’s financial market. During the forum, participants had an in-depth exchange of views on supporting investment and financing of the Belt and Road projects, seizing investment opportunities in China’s financial market, exploring cross-border financial services program, building a global asset trading platform, broadening bilateral local financing, and strengthening small and medium-sized cross-border financing cooperation. The future development of multi-level investment cooperation channels and cooperation projects were also discussed.