Chongqing- The CCI Financial Service Alliance and its secretariat- the CCI Financial Service Center were set up in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality on Tuesday.

The first batch of 21 alliance members includes a policy bank, state-owned banks, foreign banks, and financial institutions.

It’s a milestone for the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity, also known as the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative (CCI). The alliance will serve as a platform for service, coordination, communication, and expansion. It will help to form a new paradigm of financial opening-up in western China and countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, according to Zeng Jinghua, director of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity Administrative Bureau (CCIB).

CCIB deputy director Yang Yi briefed services from three aspects. After the establishment, the alliance provides comprehensive and diversified cross-border financial services for enterprises based in western China including Chongqing, provided financial services for the domestic development of companies in ASEAN countries including Singapore, and carry out cross-border finance cooperation.

Meanwhile, the CCI Financial Service Center was established as the alliance secretariat, which involves the joint working conference system, the release of financial service supply and project financial demand, specific problems that occurred in the process of financial projects, recognition and release of CCI financial projects on a regular basis, best project cases of the year, and other routine work.

Zhao Zhongbin, president of the Bank of China Chongqing Branch, said, “The establishment of the alliance and the center is favorable for Chongqing to improve its regional depth and breadth of the financial system so as to further promote financial openness and cooperation as well as financial interconnectivity.”

The first branch of DBS Bank in inland China was based in Chongqing in 2011. "Chongqing Branch has gradually become the regional center of DBS Bank in western China thanks to the CCI since 2015,” said Huang Nan,  president of DBS Bank Chongqing Branch.

Through the CCI, Chongqing companies have successfully restarted their overseas debt issuance in the post-pandemic era and Singaporean companies have been approved for the pilot program of the Qualified Domestic Limited Partner) in China. As of now, the China-Singapore cross-border financing channel has witnessed a total of 27 projects with a financing amount worth 3 billion U.S. dollars.