China-CEEC Interbank Association Officially Established

On November 27 local time, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced at the opening ceremony of the 7th China-CEEC Trade Forum held in Budapest the official establishment of the China-CEEC Interbank Association, and CDB pledged to offer loans for development finance cooperation equivalent to 2 billion euro.

It is known that the China-CEEC Interbank Association was initiated by CDB as a multi-lateral financial cooperation platform under the China-CEEC “16+1” framework. Currently there are 14 member banks, which are policy-based, development financial institutions or state commercial banks in China and Central and Eastern European countries. Following the principle of “independence in operation, decision-making and risk management,” all members cooperate in a range of areas, including project financing, credit extension among the same industry, planning consultation, training and exchange, dialogue among senior management, policy communication and information sharing.

The loans equivalent to 2 billion euro will be offered for the purpose of channeling funds to less developed areas and economic bottlenecks in member countries with the help of the financial cooperation within the China-CEEC Interbank Association, so that all member countries and their citizens will benefit from real economic growth. The loans will be offered through the Interbank Association member banks and, in future, the observation banks for facilitating cooperation among the financial industries, jointly supporting projects in infrastructure, electricity, telecommunications, industrial parks, agriculture, medium and small enterprises, and high-tech fields in China and CEEC countries, to be concreted within 5 years.

It is reported that in recent years, CDB has offered strong support for major cooperation projects in China and CEEC. By far, it has supported 19 projects in CEEC with contracts of 1.132 billion euro and loan balance of 599 million euro. Looking ahead, CDB will continue to focus on the joint construction of the Belt and Road and will, following the principle of “mutual creation, mutual sharing and mutual progression,” manage to build the China-CEEC Interbank Association into a new engine for pragmatic cooperation between China and CEEC.