Banking on a great countdown to the Games

Bank of China Limited, the first official partner of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, hosted a"1,000 Days to Go" countdown ceremony for the 2022 Winter Olympics on Friday.

The ceremony was part of the celebrations held in Beijing for the countdown, signifying that preparatory work for the Games has entered a new phase.

He Jianghai, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, who also serves as deputy Party chief of Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, the co-host city, praised the Bank of China for its effective provision of financial services to support the committee and the construction of venues, infrastructure and preparatory work for the Games.

"Giving full play to its advantages in doing cross-border business, Bank of China is providing financial services to well-known domestic and foreign winter sports companies, assisting Zhangjiakou to match its investment demand with the interest of international companies in the ice and snow industry, selling the officially-licensed precious metal products of the 2022 Winter Olympics, organizing mass winter sports events and issuing Winter Olympics themed credit cards," said He.

"The bank has made strong efforts to encourage 300 million Chinese citizens to participate in ice and snow sports, demonstrating its executive management team's feeling toward the Olympics and its ability to keep in mind the bigger picture and shoulder the responsibility," he added.

As the nation's most globalized State-owned commercial bank, Bank of China has provided financing that exceeds 30 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) for infrastructure construction projects for the 2022 Winter Olympics and has issued more than 8 million Winter Olympics themed credit and debit cards.

It has also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Jilin provincial government to support the development of the ice and snow sports industry in Jilin.

"Our bank will also sign strategic cooperation agreements with other winter sports bases, including major provinces in southern China where indoor winter sports are practiced, so that we will achieve the goal set by the central government to stimulate 300 million people to participate in the ice and snow sports, in addition to pushing hard with the development of the ice and snow industry in our country," said Liu Liange, president of Bank of China.