With the witness of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, ICBC entered into a USD 2.0 billion worth infrastructure cooperation framework agreement with the Department of Finance and Budget of Equatorial Guinea and China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure) in Beijing on April 28. Under this agreement, ICBC will establish a long-term strategic partnership with the Equatorial Guinean government and together with Sinosure, provide financial support to the Equatorial Guinean government and Chinese enterprises for investment and financing in the country in the areas including future project development and construction, market operation and financing transactions. 

As a better developed country in Central Africa, Equatorial Guinea has continued to increase infrastructure investment in recent years with strong demand for infrastructure related projects. Currently, Chinese enterprises are carrying out over 40 construction contracting projects in Equatorial Guinea, giving rise to demand for a variety of financial services such as financing, settlement and investment banking. ICBC attaches great importance to delivering financial services to Chinese enterprises in their “going global” efforts and “One Belt and One Road” projects. So far, the investment in the “One Belt and One Road” reserve projects alone has reached USD158.8 billion. Africa has long been one of the strategic focuses for ICBC’s support of “going global” companies. The presence of ICBC has covered nearly 20 countries in the region. The cooperation agreement with the Equatorial Guinean government marks another breakthrough for ICBC to serve “going global” enterprises in Africa and opens up a new path for financially supporting and guiding enterprises to “go global”.

In recent years, ICBC has leveraged its advantages in group-wide integration and global service network to actively provide full-suite financial services for Chinese companies going global and “One Belt and One Road” construction. Currently, the overseas presence of ICBC has expanded to 42 countries and territories, representing the widest coverage among Chinese financial institutions. In addition, ICBC has indirect coverage of 20 countries in Africa through shareholding in Standard Bank of South Africa, forming a global service network across Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, America and Australia. Given the opportunities brought by the “One Belt and One Road” programme, ICBC takes full advantage of its extensive experience in overseas infrastructure investment and financing, the innovative model of commercial banking plus investment banking and diversified overseas product lines to provide specialized investment and financing services in sectors of power, transportation, oil and gas, mining, telecommunication, machinery, industrial park development and agriculture, and strongly support Chinese enterprises to expand overseas and improve their global operation capability, which eventually contributes to the economic and social development of the host countries.