On June 16, ICBC and the Czech Republic Government Office signed the Memorandum on the Establishment of Prague Branch and Business Cooperation and the Memorandum on Cooperation in the Establishment of Central and Eastern European Fund in Beijing. Meanwhile, the two parties announced the official opening of ICBC Mall Czech Pavilion in a bid to further strengthen Sino-Czech cooperation in the financial sector.

Czech is an important country in Central and Eastern Europe and the European Union with solid economic growth and investment environment. China and Czech have close economic and trade ties and high political mutual trust, with huge cooperation potentials. Czech is China’s second largest trade partner in the Central and Eastern Europe while China is Czech’s largest trade partner (except the EU) for many years. In 2015, Sino-Czech bilateral trade amounted to USD 20.7 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 7.8%. In recent two years, President Xi Jinping has met with Czech President Miloš Zeman four times, reaching extensive consensus on strengthening high-level exchanges of the two countries, deepening strategic mutual trust and enhancing exchanges and cooperation in all fields.

According to the Memorandum on the Establishment of Prague Branch and Business Cooperation, ICBC and the Czech Government will push forward the establishment of ICBC Prague Branch. In addition, both parties will actively explore opportunities of cooperation between two governments as well as medium and large-sized enterprises, and work with Chinese enterprises to conduct production capacity cooperation in Czech under the “Belt and Road” Initiative. According to the Memorandum on Cooperation in the Establishment of Central and Eastern European Fund, both parties will jointly promote and collaborate over the establishment of the Central and Eastern European Fund, in which Czech proposed to invest 200 million euros, and promised to support the investment and operation of the Fund in Czech, provide necessary investment guidance and recommend potential investment opportunities.

Since launched on January 12, 2014, ICBC Mall, positioned as an e-commerce platform of “renowned merchants, renowned brands and renowned stores”, has continued to expand sources and categories of high-quality, branded products. The number of users has exceeded 30 million within around two years. In 2015, the transaction surpassed RMB 870 billion, among the best of China’s e-commerce industry. In addition, ICBC Mall is tapping into cross-border e-commerce sector and has established 15 national pavilions (including Czech Pavilion) by leveraging ICBC‘s network across 42 countries and extensive overseas customer base, boosting China from “Global Factory” to “Global Shop”. The first batch of popular commodities available in ICBC Mall Czech Pavilion cover well-known Czech brands in artware, cosmetics, mother and baby supplies and snacks, such as Cerna hora beer, Brouczech and Musli.

In recent years, ICBC has promoted internationalization and accelerated overseas institution layout to provide integrated financial services for Chinese enterprises going global and the “Belt and Road” Initiative. The overseas network of ICBC has so far expanded to 42 countries and territories and indirectly covered 20 African countries through purchasing shares of Standard Bank of South Africa, establishing a complete service network across the world. ICBC will take the opportunities from Sino-Czech economic and trade cooperation and investment to bridge and boost Sino-Czech economic and trade cooperation.