Bank of China plays important role in strengthening Sino-African relations

Local market roots

China and Africa are not only close partners in economic and trade cooperation — they have successfully collaborated for many years in industrialization, agricultural modernization, talent cultivation and other areas. To that end, BOC now has a financial service network covering the continent's key regions.

Since the establishment of the BOC branch in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1997, BOC has continued to expand its presence in Africa and currently has branches or representative offices in eight countries, including South Africa, Zambia, Morocco, Kenya, Tanzania and Angola. With expanding service coverage, BOC is performing better in facilitating development of the local real economy and infrastructure construction.

As the first Chinese financial institution to operate on the African continent, BOC branch in Zambia has provided more than $3 billion in credit support for Zambia's national development and economic construction over the past 27 years, covering large-scale infrastructure projects in mining, smelting, water supply, roads and economic development zones. Additionally, it fulfills social responsibilities by investing a total of 12 billion Zambian Kwacha ($457 million) in Zambian government bonds, creating hundreds of job positions and sending outstanding local employees to China for language and cultural training.

In Egypt, to promote communication infrastructure construction, BOC has established a stable relationship with the nation's largest telecommunications operator, Egypt Telecom, providing financing support for multiple projects in cooperation with Chinese enterprises. In 2024, seizing the opportunity of the cost advantage of the renminbi, BOC explored and promoted RMB financing, which has successfully implemented an export credit project for Egypt Telecom. This project is the first RMB export credit business conducted by BOC in the African region and has significantly supported the export of high value-added telecom equipment from China to Africa and promoted the internationalization of the RMB.

In oil resource-rich Angola, BOC's Luanda branch has participated in a consortium financing arrangement for receivables of the Angolan National Fuel Society, Angolan state oil company also known as Sonangol, for four consecutive years. By participating in the international consortium through pledging its receivables, a total of $194 million has been disbursed, which has effectively met the financing needs of key local clients.

The oil industry is the pillar of Angola's national economy, and Sonangol is the main operating entity of the Angolan government in the industry, responsible for the exploration, extraction, production, transportation and sale of oil and natural gas. BOC's Luanda branch participated for the first time in an $1.1 billion structured international financing consortium for receivables, and provided a loan of $73.75 million to Sonangol. Subsequently, leveraging the global operational advantages of BOC, it successfully participated in three structured financing consortium projects for the receivables. As of the end of June 2024, the credit balance extended by BOC's Luanda branch to Sonangol amounted to $90.3 million, making it the only Chinese bank in the consortium.

Openness is a distinctive symbol of Chinese-style modernization, as highlighted by the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China emphasizing the policy of opening up to the global market. Relying on China's massive market advantage, BOC is able to enhance openness capabilities to expand international cooperation and build a higher-level open economy. As China's path to modernization broadens, it will inject vitality into the modernization process worldwide, including in Africa. According to BOC officials, the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is bound to be a remarkable footnote for China and Africa to build a high-level community with a shared future.

BOC has expressed its commitment to fully implementing the spirit of the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC and the Central Financial Work Conference, fully leverage its accumulated international business characteristics and advantages, serve as a pioneer in serving high-level opening-up to the outside world and actively support China-Africa economic and trade cooperation.