During the "China-France Investment and Trade Forum" held on March 27 (local time in Paris, France), BOC entered into cooperation agreements with Bpifrance and the International Chamber of Commerce of Brittany, in a bid to promote cooperation among enterprises and SME development between the two countries.
"China-France Investment and Trade Forum" was an important bilateral economic and trade event arranged during President Xi Jinping's state visit to France, and attended by over 300 Chinese and French enterprises.
During the session of "jointly promoting the development of the financial industry" under the forum, BOC Chairman Tian Guoli, as an invited guest, exchanged views and discussed about RMB internationalization, BOC's participation in Paris's financial market and cross-financing with President of Paris Europlace, Gérard Mestrallet, and President of BNP Paribas, Baudoin Prot.
Chairman Tian pointed out that RMB has become the world's seventh most-used currency. RMB internationalization has brought unprecedented opportunities to enterprises, and RMB stands to become one of the most important currencies worldwide. The currency swap agreement reached between the People's Bank of China and the European Central Bank will facilitate the development of French enterprises and lower currency exchange risks. Tian further added that the free exchange of RMB will be a progressive process, as China has experimented with the opening-up and reform of capital account in China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, and will gradually realize the target of RMB free exchange by starting with providing the exchange quota on dollar, and investing in stocks and bonds.
When it came to BOC's development in Europe, Chairman Tian said that BOC's presence in Europe dated back to a very early time. BOC has maintained long-term cooperation with many French enterprises and forged stable partnerships with a number of renowned French companies including Total, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault, Airbus Group, EDF, Dalkia, Alstom and Veolia Group, and is providing RMB-related services to many multinational corporations in France. Besides, BOC Aviation Pte. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of BOC, has purchased 251 Airbus aircrafts in total.
Chairman Tian also expressed that as BOC had set the strategic target of "Serving Society, Delivering Excellence". BOC will provide comprehensive financial services including credits and guarantees to Chinese SMEs going to invest in France, and serve as the platform for French SMEs to invest in China.
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