BELGRADE (Serbia), November 28 (SeeNews) – China's prime minister Li Keqiang has said the country is supporting the issuing of panda bonds by companies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), in order to encourage renminbi-denominated financing of cooperation projects.
China supports financial institutions to provide money for bilateral cooperation projects, it supports companies from Central and Eastern European countries to issue panda bonds, Keqiang said on Monday during the opening of the sixth meeting of heads of government of China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) in Budapest, Hungary. His comments were streamed live on Youtube.
Speaking through an interpreter, Keqiang announced the establishment of China-CEEC Inter-Bank Association and the second phase of China-Central and Eastern Europe Investment Cooperation Fund, enabling $3 billion (2.5 billion euro) of fresh financing to CEE.
In January, Serbia's finance minister Dusan Vujovic said Belgrade sees opportunities for issuing panda bonds as Bank of China opens its first office in Serbia. "First of all, I think the panda bonds would enable Serbia to finance its debt and to continue reducing not only the debt-to-GDP ratio, but also the cost of borrowing," Vujovic said back then.
Panda bonds are Chinese yuan-denominated bonds from a non-Chinese issuer, sold in China.
In June 2016, Bank of China signed a memorandum of understanding on panda bonds issuance with Poland's finance ministry, making Poland the first European country to issue such securities. The Polish government issued 3 billion yuan ($454.9 million/382.5 million euro) worth of three-year panda bonds in China in August, and Bank of China was the leading underwriter. Bank of China launched its first Polish branch office in August 2012.
($ = 0.841198 euro)