CCB helps to cement Sino-Franco ties

China Construction Bank (Europe) Paris branch — or CCB Paris — has made great contributions to promoting high-level Sino-Franco economic cooperation, and advancing the development of bilateral relations.

Since its founding in 2015, CCB Paris has been committed to strengthening Sino-Franco cooperation in key industries, based on CCB Group's advantages in global operations and the digital economy.

It has offered multiple services and financial support to French industries such as new energy vehicles, advanced manufacturing, agriculture and senior care.

In the energy industry, CCB Paris has built strategic partnerships with several leading enterprises and given them funding worth more than $700 million. To help to ease shortages during the European energy crisis, it has led and participated in infrastructure project loans aimed at French energy suppliers that need capital to expand capacity.

In addition, the bank has made sustained efforts to foster green finance and sustainable development, with ESG-linked loans of $800 million granted. ESG refers to environment, society and governance.

The latest data showed that more than 30 percent of CCB Paris's total loans were ESG-linked or green loans. French companies are now able to accelerate their transformation of sustainable development, CCB said.

Focusing on the financial sector, CCB Paris has offered the French ministry of finance and the country's top five banks as well as their subsidiaries credit lines amounting to $70 billion.

The credit lines have laid a foundation for closer partnerships between French banks and CCB. They can now work together for more international business operations, such as bond underwriting and trade finance.

CCB Paris is exploring third-party markets in collaboration with French financial institutions. Based on CCB's cross-border interbank payment system, it has established renminbi clearing channels for French-funded banks in 13 African countries.

For qualified French financial institutions which plan to enter the Chinese capital markets, CCB Paris, with strong support from CCB Group, offers quality services to them.

For instance, CCB Paris has supported French banks to issue renminbi-denominated "Panda bonds "four times in China, with an accumulated underwriting amount of 5 billion yuan ($725 million).

CCB Paris also initiated and hosted the Focus China event at the 2021 and 2022 IPEM, which is a leading international private equity summit held in France.

The event consisted of forums and online activities to promote Chinese capital market policies and products to more than 8,000 institutions from 48 countries.

CCB Paris is building a digital economy ecosystem based on advanced technologies, which has promoted matchmaking and negotiations between enterprises from the two countries and strengthened China-France economic and trade cooperation during the pandemic.

Faced with challenges brought by COVID-19, CCB Paris continued its services and assisted bilateral trade by holding online activities via CCB Match Plus. The digital platform provides business-to-business services, including exhibitions, workshops and matchmaking meetings.

It helped French customers attend China's major foreign trade events online such as the Canton Fair and the China International and Import Expo, and promoted the matchmaking of Sino-Franco senior care cooperation.

In response to the CCB headquarters' call for global cooperation to fight the pandemic, CCB Paris donated six batches of pandemic prevention materials to the French Red Cross, police departments and nursing homes.

The donations, including nearly 40,000 masks and protective suits, received wide recognition and appreciation from French authorities and citizens.