Southeast Asia Information Port News (www.dnyxxg.com) Recently, eight departments, including the People's Bank of China and the National Development and Reform Commission, jointly issued the "Opinions on Financial Support for Accelerating the Construction of the Western Land-Sea New Corridor" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), proposing more than 20 measures to support the high-quality development of the Western Land-Sea New Corridor. The People's Bank of China held a press conference on the 25th to introduce the relevant situation.
It is understood that the Western Land-Sea New Corridor currently connects to 583 ports in 127 countries and regions, transporting more than 1,300 types of goods. It is an international logistics corridor and a bridge for financial connectivity.
Lu Lei, Vice Governor of the People's Bank of China, stated that the issuance of the "Opinions" will promote high-level financial opening-up and serve the economic and trade development of the Western Land-Sea New Corridor. The "Opinions" optimize the cross-border settlement facilitation system and support domestic financial institutions in China to strengthen agency settlement and clearing cooperation with financial institutions in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Hong Kong and Macao.
The "Opinions" also point out the need to introduce overseas financial institutions and organizations. The document supports eligible banks in ASEAN countries and Hong Kong and Macao to conduct financial services in provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) along the Belt and Road Initiative through newly established legal entities, branches, and specialized institutions. It also supports international financial centers and eligible overseas exchanges to establish representative offices in provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) along the Belt and Road Initiative.
The document explicitly supports provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) along the Belt and Road Initiative to participate in multilateral central bank digital currency bridge projects, promoting the use of central bank digital currencies in cross-border payments with Thailand, Hong Kong, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and other countries. It supports exploring and promoting pilot projects for cross-border payments of digital RMB between the mainland and Singapore. Furthermore, it supports eligible provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) along the Belt and Road Initiative to build cross-border e-commerce digital service platforms, connecting with cross-border e-commerce and trade digitization platform companies in countries such as Singapore to enhance cross-border e-commerce service capabilities. (End)
