Bank of China plays important role in strengthening Sino-African relations

Since the establishment of BOC branch in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1997, BOC has continued to expand its presence in Africa and established branches or offices in eight African countries. CHINA DAILY

The 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, taking place from Wednesday to Friday in Beijing, has drawn global attention to the growing friendship and cooperation between China and Africa. As the first domestic commercial bank to enter the African market, Bank of China is a witness, participant, promoter and beneficiary of that cooperation.

Currently, BOC has established branches or offices in eight African countries. Leveraging its advantages in globalization and competitiveness, the bank has pledged to support the upgrading of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation and empower high-quality development of China-Africa cooperation in the new era.

In July 2023, the BOC Luanda branch participates in the China-Angola Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum. CHINA DAILY

Supporting capital flows

In 2023, the trade value between China and Africa reached a historical peak of $282.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.5 percent, while the trade volume between China and nearly half of the African countries saw a double-digit growth rate. The economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa continues to strengthen, helping to leverage their respective advantages and vast markets for mutual benefit and win-win outcomes.

As a century-old brand, BOC has long been deeply involved in the field of cross-border finance. Leveraging its global service network, it comprehensively supports interconnectivity between Chinese and African enterprises at home and abroad. With a large number of Chinese enterprises flowing into Africa, BOC's optimized services ensure smooth cross-border trade. For example, more than 30 large-scale State-owned Chinese enterprises and nearly 300 large-scale private Chinese enterprises in Angola faced difficulties in cross-border capital flows for years. Upon understanding their situation, BOC's Luanda branch carefully assessed the needs of the Chinese enterprises, established trading channels on Bloomberg's trading platform FXGO and improved the infrastructure of the foreign exchange market.

In March 2024, the branch takes part in the Angola-China Business Summit Forum held in Beijing. CHINA DAILY

While participating in local foreign exchange market transactions and supporting the anti-money laundering campaign, BOC provides proxy foreign exchange trading and cross-border remittance services for Chinese companies investing overseas. Since 2020, the BOC's Luanda branch has helped a group of Chinese enterprises in Angola acquire more than $500 million in foreign currency, which has removed the barrier to cross-border capital flows.

In Zambia, a country with rich copper resources, BOC provided $150 million in credit support for the first phase of China Nonferrous Metal Mining's Kambove Copper Wet Smelting Project to support construction of the project with a seven-year term. The project is now in operation. And with a production capacity of 28,000 metric tons of cathode copper, it is driving economic and social development in Kambove and surrounding areas and is increasing the supply of local fiscal revenue and supporting national strategic resource.

While assisting Chinese enterprises in going global, BOC also serves as a bridge in facilitating the introduction of more African products into the Chinese market. In Tanzania, BOC's representative office seized the opportunity of the annual China International Import Expo in Shanghai to connect local avocado enterprises with the Chinese market. After discovering sales channels, this initiative promoted the trade of Tanzanian avocados with China.

In Zambia, leveraging the local geographical and ecological endowments, BOC facilitated Zambian honey reaching Chinese households. Since 2016, BOC has annually organized dozens of small and medium-sized Zambian enterprises to participate in the CIIE and the bank's cross-border investment and trade matchmaking meetings in China. It has successfully introduced seven Zambian honey enterprises to the Chinese market, and according to customs statistics, between 2019-23, Zambia exported a total of 64 tons of high-quality honey to China.

Foreign journalists experience 8K ultrahigh definition cinema (left) and intangible Chinese culture (right). International media groups are reporting on the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which is being held in Beijing from Wednesday to Friday. WANG ZHUANGFEI/CHINA DAILY

Local market roots

China and Africa are not only close partners in economic and trade cooperation — they have successfully collaborated for many years in industrialization, agricultural modernization, talent cultivation and other areas. To that end, BOC now has a financial service network covering the continent's key regions.

Since the establishment of the BOC branch in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1997, BOC has continued to expand its presence in Africa and currently has branches or representative offices in eight countries, including South Africa, Zambia, Morocco, Kenya, Tanzania and Angola. With expanding service coverage, BOC is performing better in facilitating development of the local real economy and infrastructure construction.

As the first Chinese financial institution to operate on the African continent, BOC branch in Zambia has provided more than $3 billion in credit support for Zambia's national development and economic construction over the past 27 years, covering large-scale infrastructure projects in mining, smelting, water supply, roads and economic development zones. Additionally, it fulfills social responsibilities by investing a total of 12 billion Zambian Kwacha ($457 million) in Zambian government bonds, creating hundreds of job positions and sending outstanding local employees to China for language and cultural training.

In Egypt, to promote communication infrastructure construction, BOC has established a stable relationship with the nation's largest telecommunications operator, Egypt Telecom, providing financing support for multiple projects in cooperation with Chinese enterprises. In 2024, seizing the opportunity of the cost advantage of the renminbi, BOC explored and promoted RMB financing, which has successfully implemented an export credit project for Egypt Telecom. This project is the first RMB export credit business conducted by BOC in the African region and has significantly supported the export of high value-added telecom equipment from China to Africa and promoted the internationalization of the RMB.

Foreign journalists experience 8K ultrahigh definition cinema (left) and intangible Chinese culture (right). International media groups are reporting on the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which is being held in Beijing from Wednesday to Friday. WANG ZHUANGFEI/CHINA DAILY

In oil resource-rich Angola, BOC's Luanda branch has participated in a consortium financing arrangement for receivables of the Angolan National Fuel Society, Angolan state oil company also known as Sonangol, for four consecutive years. By participating in the international consortium through pledging its receivables, a total of $194 million has been disbursed, which has effectively met the financing needs of key local clients.

The oil industry is the pillar of Angola's national economy, and Sonangol is the main operating entity of the Angolan government in the industry, responsible for the exploration, extraction, production, transportation and sale of oil and natural gas. BOC's Luanda branch participated for the first time in an $1.1 billion structured international financing consortium for receivables, and provided a loan of $73.75 million to Sonangol. Subsequently, leveraging the global operational advantages of BOC, it successfully participated in three structured financing consortium projects for the receivables. As of the end of June 2024, the credit balance extended by BOC's Luanda branch to Sonangol amounted to $90.3 million, making it the only Chinese bank in the consortium.

Openness is a distinctive symbol of Chinese-style modernization, as highlighted by the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China emphasizing the policy of opening up to the global market. Relying on China's massive market advantage, BOC is able to enhance openness capabilities to expand international cooperation and build a higher-level open economy. As China's path to modernization broadens, it will inject vitality into the modernization process worldwide, including in Africa. According to BOC officials, the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is bound to be a remarkable footnote for China and Africa to build a high-level community with a shared future.

BOC has expressed its commitment to fully implementing the spirit of the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC and the Central Financial Work Conference, fully leverage its accumulated international business characteristics and advantages, serve as a pioneer in serving high-level opening-up to the outside world and actively support China-Africa economic and trade cooperation.