"Chinese Enterprises Going Global" has been a widely discussed hot topic this year. It cannot be ignored that cross-border investment and industrial cooperation by enterprises are inseparable from strong financial support. Southeast Asia, as the preferred region for Chinese enterprises to go global, frequently sees various forms of financial cooperation.
The latest data shows that in the first three quarters of this year, China's imports and exports to ASEAN exceeded 5 trillion yuan, with a growth of 9.4%, making it one of the fastest-growing regions. Bilateral investment cooperation is also continuously deepening, with cumulative two-way investment exceeding 400 billion US dollars as of July. In terms of increment, China's direct investment in ASEAN in the first seven months of this year increased by 15% year-on-year, and ASEAN's investment in China also reached a growth rate of 14%, accelerating the realization of two-way investment.
Recently, the "2024 Financial Street Forum Annual Meeting" was held in Beijing. Among them, China Investment Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "CIC") and China Galaxy Securities Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Galaxy Securities") co-organized a parallel forum themed "China-Southeast Asia Cross-Border Investment Industrial Cooperation and High-Quality Development" (hereinafter referred to as "Parallel Forum"), where participants offered suggestions and provided constructive directions for financial exploration of cross-border investment opportunities in Southeast Asia.
Financial Power as a New Engine for Asian Economic Integration
"At present, CIC's overseas investment business has covered major asset classes in more than 110 countries and regions around the world. Southeast Asia has always been one of the key investment areas for CIC. We have invested in several key projects in the fields of interconnectivity, healthcare, and clean energy, and maintain good cooperative relationships with major investment institutions in the region." said Liu Haoling, General Manager of CIC.
"The China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is the first free trade area established by China with foreign countries. The substantive negotiations for the 3.0 version upgrade have ended, and for the first time, the two sides have reached the highest level of digital economy, green economy, and supply chain interconnectivity chapters, which is of great pioneering significance." Wang Sheng, Chairman of Galaxy Securities, introduced.
Data shows that in 2023, China's trade volume with the ten ASEAN countries exceeded 910 billion US dollars, accounting for 15.4% of China's foreign trade. It can be seen that the importance of the ten ASEAN countries in China's foreign trade is becoming more and more prominent.
Financial institutions continue to layout in Southeast Asia. For example, in 2018, Galaxy Securities extended its international business network from Hong Kong, China, to more than ten countries and regions including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and South Korea by acquiring the securities business of Malaysia's United Overseas Bank Group. At the end of 2023, China Galaxy Securities completed the 100% exercise of the United Overseas Bank merger project and renamed it "Galaxy Overseas". As of the first half of this year, Galaxy Overseas's brokerage business market share ranked second in Singapore and first in Malaysia.
According to Wang Sheng, Galaxy Securities strongly supports Chinese and ASEAN enterprises in listing and financing. For example, as the lead underwriter, it completed the IPO project of Thailand's Krung Thai Bank, which is the largest-scale IPO in the Thai market in recent years; it also helped Malaysia's Sunway Group successfully complete two stock placement projects.
Lin Jingzhen, Deputy President of Bank of China, said that Southeast Asia is becoming an important investment destination for Chinese enterprises, showing characteristics of diversified investment fields, and China and Southeast Asian countries face more opportunities for investment and industrial cooperation. Bank of China has always attached great importance to serving the Southeast Asian market, has set up branches in the ten ASEAN countries, and provides high-quality financial services for two-way economic and trade and investment cooperation.Deepening Financial Cooperation
Regarding the next steps for development, in the keynote speech segment, Ren Hongbin, President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), suggested further consolidating the strength of business communities to better stimulate the vitality and potential of China-Southeast Asia economic and trade investment; building an open platform to enhance the connectivity and resilience of China-Southeast Asia industrial and supply chains; and deepening financial cooperation to promote high-quality development of the regional economy between China and Southeast Asia.
In terms of consolidating business strength, Ren Hongbin stated that Southeast Asia has become the most concentrated region for overseas investment by Chinese automotive companies, especially new energy vehicles. The business community is an active participant and promoter of high-quality development in China-Southeast Asia economic and trade cooperation.
"Currently, there are 144 financial institutions from ASEAN countries participating in the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) in Renminbi, and more than ten Chinese financial institutions have established nearly 40 branches and representative offices in ASEAN. We believe that a more open, efficient, and vibrant financial cooperation system will provide strong support for China-Southeast Asia economic and trade exchanges and will effectively promote regional economic prosperity and development," emphasized Ren Hongbin.
"In recent years, the CCPIT has actively strengthened exchanges and cooperation with Chinese-funded financial institutions and overseas institutions of United Overseas Bank (UOB) in Singapore, building a high-quality platform for bank-enterprise docking. We have organized Chinese financial institutions and enterprises to participate in the formulation of international rules in the field of trade finance, relying on multilateral mechanisms such as APEC, G20, BRICS, and platforms such as international chambers of commerce. We have focused on topics such as green finance and sustainable finance, proposing a series of Chinese initiatives and propositions," said Ren Hongbin when discussing the deepening of financial cooperation.
To further deepen practical cooperation between China and Southeast Asia, Lin Jingzhen suggested further strengthening the government-enterprise-bank cooperation ecosystem; actively deploying the digital economy industry to build new cooperation bridges for two-way cross-border investment; and cautiously promoting the internationalization of the Renminbi.
In the roundtable discussion segment, guests expressed that Southeast Asia is rapidly developing in areas such as consumption, digital economy, healthcare, new energy, semiconductors, and logistics, offering abundant investment opportunities and industrial cooperation space. Chinese enterprises and institutions should grasp the comparative advantages of different countries and markets in the Southeast Asian region when "going out" to the Southeast Asian market. They should strengthen mutual "trust" with partners, enhance cooperation "confidence," continuously innovate investment cooperation methods, deepen the integration of industry and finance, promote two-way investment, strengthen international industrial cooperation, and achieve win-win outcomes. In this process, the financial industry can play an important role in financing and investment services, industrial docking, information exchange, and project incubation.