The 2020 Financial Services Achievements Exhibition of China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity (CCI) was launched online on November 23.
The 2020 Financial Services Achievements Exhibition of China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity (CCI) was launched online.
The online exhibition showcased the results of financial services cooperation between China and Singapore over the past five years through an elaborative online exhibition hall. It can be seen that the economic and trade ties between Chongqing and Singapore have become increasingly close.
Since the launch of CCI, the National Development and Reform Commission, the People's Bank of China, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Monetary Authority of Singapore have issued more than 50 innovative policies on cross-border investment and financing, pilot cross-border RMB innovation business, financial technology, insurance cooperation, mutual establishment of institutions, etc.
Specifically, many of their breakthroughs about several policies have been made first in the central and western regions. Those policies support Chongqing to carry out pilot reform of the scale of foreign debts, encourage the city's enterprises to issue RMB bonds in Singapore, allow equity investment funds established in the city to invest abroad in the form of RMB, help Singaporean reinsurance, insurance brokers and rating agencies to set up branches in the city, and assist Singaporean investors to participate in the construction of the city's element trading platform.
By virtue of applying those policies, significant progress has been made in the mutual establishment of institutions in various fields.
In particular, a number of China-Singapore joint ventures or wholly-owned institutions and cooperation platforms have been established in Chongqing, enriching the city's type of financial business and improving the service level of its financial industry.
Those include Sino-Singapore Connectivity Private Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd., Chongqing Lion Rock Yi Ming Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd., GLP Financial Holdings (Chongqing) Co., Ltd., BOC Financial Leasing Corporation Limited, China-Singapore Fintech Collaboration Demonstration Zone, the Jiangbeizui International Investment & Financing Roadshow Center and China CITIC Bank International Business Operation Center, etc.
Moreover, the cross-border use and financing of RMB under CCI has also yielded fruitful results. According to statistics, by the end of October 2020, the cross-border RMB payments and receipts between Chongqing and Singapore had totaled 36.79 billion yuan (about USD 5.6 billion), and Singapore had become the third-largest foreign country of cross-border use of RMB of the city.
The balance of financing used by Chongqing's banking industry to support the construction of CCI had reached 46.8 billion yuan, and about 168 billion yuan of loans had been granted for the construction of infrastructure related to the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.
A total of 141 China-Singapore cross-border financing projects had settled in Chongqing, with the financing amount reaching USD 12.5 billion. Driven by the "point-to-point" financial cooperation between Chongqing and Singapore, a new pattern of two-way financial opening-up of the "region-to-region" cooperation between the western provinces of China and ASEAN has formed.