CDB Opens Representative Office in Astana

On October 15, 2018, CDB opened a representative office in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. The plague of the new representative office was jointly unveiled by Kairat Kelimbetov, Governor of the Astana International Financial Centre, Timur Suleimenov, Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Liu Jin, Executive Vice President of CDB, and Zhang Xiao, China's Ambassador to Kazakhstan. The Astana representative office is CDB's first official branch in Central Asia and its 7th overseas office following those in Cairo, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Caracas, London, and Vientiane.

As noted by Liu Jin in his speech, the Astana representative office is CDB's first overseas office set up after the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was convened in 2017. CDB will seize the opportunity offered by the establishment of the representative office and focus on: 1) promoting alignment between the Belt and Road Initiative and Kazakhstan's new economic policy "Nurly Zhol – The Path to the Future" and supporting the implementation of major projects in key areas such as infrastructure connectivity and collaboration on production capacity, energy and resource, and technological innovation; and 2) deepening financial collaboration, promoting innovation of financial products and financing models, promoting coordination for the design of financing plans, and providing Kazakhstan enterprises with comprehensive financial services of higher quality in a more efficient manner.

Kazakhstan is one of the first countries where CDB has international operations. As of the end of June 2018, as the only Chinese member of the SCO Interbank Consortium and a leading bank for funding China-Kazakhstan collaboration on economy, trade and production capacity, CDB had signed contracts worth 28 billion USD and funded 32 local projects in areas such as oil and natural gas, mining, electric power, chemical engineering, cross-border infrastructures, and finance. It had promised 33.5 billion USD in loans to Kazakhstan and granted 20.2 billion USD including 4.6 billion USD for China-Kazakhstan production capacity collaboration projects, reporting a loan balance of 9.2 billion USD. Moreover, CDB is working with Kazakhstan on planning, exchange and training and is funding local students to study in China, playing a positive role in forming stronger people-to-people bonds between the two countries.