China tapping 10 Philippine’s banks

State-owned Bank of China is in talks with ten Philippines banks including  Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. and Land Bank of the Philippines to retail the $3-billion fund committed by the Chinese lender to the Philippines.

A team of high ranking officials from Bank of China’s main office in Beijing attended the first of a series of roadshows in the Philippines to link with local financing institutions including banks and microfinance lenders.

Bank of China president Jun Deng said more financing institutions and legitimate lenders would be announced soon.

“This is just the initial phase. We will be having discussions with the banks we invited. Maybe later on, we’ll disclose these banks and the development of our discussions,” he said during the Manila leg of the roadshow held Thursday at Fairmont Hotel in Makati City.

The roadshow is a pre-event exercise in preparation for the Bank of China’s global SME cross-border trade and investment conference that will take place in Davao City in 2017.

Bank of China will provide details on how it will disperse financing to Philippine SMEs during the Davao conference.

The bank said it would also bring in 100 Chinese SMEs interested in the Philippine agro-industrial industry.

“Agribusiness is one of the key areas important to China. Other interests include technology, renewable energy which is heavy on solar-based power production and the furniture industry,” said International Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines president Jesus Varela.

Initial talks between the Chinese bankers and Filipino businessmen pointed to Mindanao as the priority area.

The conference will also serve as a matchmaking event for SMES to have access to financing from credited financing retailers of Bank of China.

Bank of China said while the $3-billion financing commitment would not be for the sole benefit of SMEs, the bigger portion of the fund will help SMEs grow and build a global enterprise.

Deng said a portion of the financing would also support important infrastructure and energy projects and programs that would promote industrialization.

Bank of China held 26 cross-border trade and investment conferences across the world that attracted over 30,000 people from political and business circles and  more than 15,000 enterprises from 60 countries over the past two years.