China to expand financing channels for Central, Eastern Europe

Premier Li Keqiang vowed to expand financing channels for the cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries as he attended the seventh China-CEEC Economic and Trade Forum on Monday in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

Li said the financing channels should be expanded. China supports commercial financial institutions to finance cooperative projects and supports enterprises from CEE nations to issue panda bonds in China, he said. A panda bond is a renminbi-denominated bond for a non-Chinese issuer.

Li also said renminbi financing will be supported for cooperative projects.

Premier Li said the China-Central and Eastern Europe Investment Cooperation Fund, initiated by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China last year, has market-oriented financing channels and received well-judged feedback.

He announced the establishment of the China-CEEC Bank Consortium to which the China Development Bank will grant loans worth 2 billion euros. He also announced that a second round of the fund has been completed to raise $1 billion, which will be mainly invested in the CEE nations.