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Standard Chartered pledges US$20b for Belt and Road projects
来源：shippingazette.com 编辑：编辑部 发布：2017/12/21 14:22:50
STANDARD Chartered announced that it will offer at least US$20 billion in financing by 2020 to facilitate projects part of China's Belt and Road Initiative.
The bank made the pledge during the two-day 9th UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue held recently in Beijing, which focused on a range of partnership targets such as trade, infrastructure and financial services cooperation between the two countries.
The announcement is the latest step by a major foreign bank to help close the funding gap for the initiative, which represents President Xi Jinping's vision for infrastructure-led trade.
China has pledged to invest at least 780 billion yuan (US$113 billion) through its state funds and banks to finance projects part of the initiative, which hopes to deliver hundreds of infrastructure projects to grow trade by rail, road and sea in more than 60 countries. But market watchers said more capital from other multilateral lenders and the private sector was needed for the plan, the South China Morning Post reported.
Standard Chartered said it was "one of very few truly global banks" that could facilitate trade, capital and investment flows across Belt and Road markets.
"Standard Chartered has a natural fit with the Belt and Road Initiative," said Jose Vinals, the bank's chairman, which gets about 85 per cent of its income from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The bank has more than two-thirds of its global footprint overlapping with Belt and Road destination countries, and it has a long history in these trade and investment corridors, he said.
Standard Chartered will provide financial services including lending, transaction banking, capital markets and project finance activities as part of its commitment. This year, it has already been involved in more than 50 deals related to the initiative.
"While China has pledged further financing opening, we expect more foreign banks to have stronger confidence to join in major economic cooperation plans like the Belt and Road Initiative," said Zhang Xingrong, the managing director at the Bank of China's Institute of International Finance in Beijing.
The bank made the pledge during the two-day 9th UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue held recently in Beijing, which focused on a range of partnership targets such as trade, infrastructure and financial services cooperation between the two countries.
The announcement is the latest step by a major foreign bank to help close the funding gap for the initiative, which represents President Xi Jinping's vision for infrastructure-led trade.
China has pledged to invest at least 780 billion yuan (US$113 billion) through its state funds and banks to finance projects part of the initiative, which hopes to deliver hundreds of infrastructure projects to grow trade by rail, road and sea in more than 60 countries. But market watchers said more capital from other multilateral lenders and the private sector was needed for the plan, the South China Morning Post reported.
Standard Chartered said it was "one of very few truly global banks" that could facilitate trade, capital and investment flows across Belt and Road markets.
"Standard Chartered has a natural fit with the Belt and Road Initiative," said Jose Vinals, the bank's chairman, which gets about 85 per cent of its income from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The bank has more than two-thirds of its global footprint overlapping with Belt and Road destination countries, and it has a long history in these trade and investment corridors, he said.
Standard Chartered will provide financial services including lending, transaction banking, capital markets and project finance activities as part of its commitment. This year, it has already been involved in more than 50 deals related to the initiative.
"While China has pledged further financing opening, we expect more foreign banks to have stronger confidence to join in major economic cooperation plans like the Belt and Road Initiative," said Zhang Xingrong, the managing director at the Bank of China's Institute of International Finance in Beijing.