Bank of China sees high Sino-Dutch potential: chairman

Bank of China, one of the country's leading lenders, has committed itself to renminbi operations both in the Netherlands and the rest of the world, as the global economy picks up and China sustains long-term stable growth, said its board chairman, Tian Guoli.

Tian stressed the commitment at an economic and trade forum on Sunday at which visiting President Xi Jinping was giving a keynote speech.

"For a long time, Bank of China has regarded the Netherlands as one of the overseas markets that has the highest development potential," Tian said.

Tian said his bank has become the primary bank servicing Sino-Dutch economic and trade exchanges, handling banking business for hundreds of big Chinese companies both in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. He said the bank has a cooperative relationship with many Dutch companies such as Philips and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

"We would be pleased to further extend our cross-border servicing advantage, to provide the Sino-Dutch entrepreneurs a package of services," Tian said.

He said his bank has solid experience in information consultation, financial support and risk prevention, fully supporting Dutch companies' business development in the Chinese market and serving Chinese companies' investment in the Netherlands.

"With such businesses, we will steadily accelerate the internationalization of Chinese currency renminbi," Tian said, adding that the Chinese government will continue the steps in financial reform amid the country's new waves of deep, comprehensive reform drives.

Tian boasted of his bank's solid client base, globally servicing more than 300 million private clients, 2.6 million corporate clients and 1,600 financial institution clients.

"Bank of China is the most diversified and internationalized bank in China, with over 600 branches and subsidiaries in 40 countries and regions outside China," Tian said.

According to Tian, his bank has become No 1 in the world in international settlement, achieving a total volume amounting to $3.42 trillion in 2013. Additionally, it has the largest scale and strongest expertise globally in cross-border RMB business.

"We have set up a highly efficient RMB clearing global network, handling one-third of the world's total cross-border RMB settlement business, exceeding 8 trillion yuan ($1.28 trillion )in volume," Tian said.

In light of global economic outlook, Tian said that after the last five-year cycle of fluctuation and twist-and-turn recovery, the world economy is looking toward a more optimistic direction this year.

But he warned about quantitative easing of monetary policy by the US. Together with the macroeconomic adjustment policy of the EU, this could bring about a considerable fluctuation in the international capital market.

"The emerging economies may also face capital outflow, national currencies fluctuation and other challenges," he warned.

Contact the writers at fujing@chinadaily.com.cn and wujiao@chinadaily.com.cn

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