China Exim Bank lends more to help China firms go global

2017-01-30
Xinhua

BEIJING — The Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) improved financial support for domestic firms to help them increase their presence in the global market last year.

The bank issued a total of 208 loans to overseas projects of Chinese businesses in 2016, and its outstanding loans rose 17 percent from a year ago by the end of the last year.

Projects related to the Belt and Road Initiative, international cooperation on industrial capacity and equipment manufacturing were especially favored by the bank.

China has seen rising demand for financing to support outbound investment. The country’s non-financial outbound direct investment increased 44.1 percent year on year to $170.11 billion in 2016, with a big share going to manufacturing and information technology sectors.

Founded in 1994, China Exim Bank is one of the country’s three policy banks and works to facilitate foreign trade, offshore project contracting, and outbound investment.

The bank’s lending to foreign trade improvement reached 50 billion yuan ($7.29 billion) in 2016.