Source: Fujian Daily
Fujian is the hometown of Industrial Bank (IB). It is where the bank is rooted.
Although IB has for a long time extended its operations across China and become one of the top ten Chinese banks, IB always keeps in mind where its roots are, and is going all out to be integrated into the Western Straits and makes great efforts to achieve joint development and to leap forward with Fujian. Just as it was said by the IB’s Board Chairman, Gao Jianping, “since IB was born and has grown up in the Western Straits, it is a responsible and rational decision by the bank to become fully involved in, and serve the construction of the Western Straits.”
In May 2010, upon the first anniversary of the “Opinions on Supporting Fujian Province to Accelerate the Construction of the Western Straits Economic Zone” promulgated by the State Council, IB released the “Suggestions on Further Involvement in and Serving of the Western Straits Construction”, announcing to implement a “Multi-Billion Program” in the Western Straits to advance the “Six Major Projects”. In order to support the construction of the Pingtan Composite Pilot Zone, key construction projects of the Western Straits, a low-carbon economy, outstanding small-sized enterprises, livelihood projects and development of Taiwan funded businesses, IB will act as the main force in the economic construction of the region, comprehensively integrating itself with, and working hard for the leaping development of the Western Straits.
In April 2011, IB further released “Opinions on the Active Implementation of Financial Innovation to Fully Serve the ‘Five Campaigns’ of the Western Straits”. By driving innovation in seven key business fields: direct financing services, financial leasing services, green finance, supply chain finance, entire-industrial chain services for urbanization, IPO of SMEs and asset business cooperation, IB will exert itself to meet the capital needs for constructing the major projects of the “five campaigns”, improve financial productivity, and bring into play the guaranteeing role of finance.
By the end of 2010, the loan balance of IB across Fujian reached RMB 132.346 billion, increasing RMB 25.998 billion over the beginning of the year, and up 24.45%, 2.71% higher than that of the bank as a whole. The loan-deposit ratio in Fujian Province has always been higher than the average level of the bank. By the end of 2010, it reached 78.43%, 7.23% higher than the average level of the bank. IB has been playing a significant role in exerting the advantages of its head office and attracting funds across China into the Western Straits.
Having gone through trials and hardships for over 20 years, IB’s people have extended its operations across China and achieved leaping development, at the same time they have won honor for and made contributions to IB’s hometown. This is not merely reflected by the fact that Fujian people feel proud of such a “gilded business card”, but more by the quiet dedication made by IB to the economic construction of Fujian during the course becoming mature.
Centralizing resources to invest more funds for the development of Fujian
Relying on the continuous, fast and healthy development of economy in Fujian and depending on the steady improvement of its own overall strength, IB has actively brought into play the advantage of being headquartered in Fujian and constantly arranged funds in many ways to invest more financial resources for the development of Fujian, especially for the construction of key projects.
If we compare the economy of Western Straits to a dragon, the key projects in the area are no doubt muscles and bones of the dragon. IB has, in accordance with the requirement of project driving, always been increasing its support to key projects in the Western Straits, so as to help the region to build strong muscles and bones for the economic development of Western Straits.
As early as 2006, IB established a financial service leading team for the construction of Western Straits and a completion responsibility system for construction projects in the Western Straits, raising special funds according to the “Planning of Fujian on the Development of Key Projects” and focusing on investment in infrastructure, basic industries and backbone industries as well as relevant support projects. During the period of the “11th Five-year Plan”, IB provided credit support to key projects of Western Straits, almost covering all basic construction fields.
Let’s take the expressway projects of Fujian as an example. As early as 1994 before the commencement of Quanzhou-Xiamen Expressway (the first expressway in the province), all other banks in the province held a wait-and-see attitude, but IB dared to centralize funds to provide it with full support. After that, IB has acted as a main financial force in the construction of almost all expressways including Fuzhou-Quanzhou Expressway, Beijing-Fuzhou Expressway, Zhangzhou-Longyan Expressway, Longyan-Changting Expressway, Luoyuan-Changle Expressway, Xiamen-Zhangzhou Expressway, Fuzhou Airport Expressway, City Ring Expressway, etc.
Meanwhile, by adapting to the trends of accelerated development of domestic capital market and direct financing, IB has actively used innovative tools, such as short-term financing bonds, medium-term notes, transfer of credit assets, etc., to organize funds from different channels. For the past five years, IB has released 8 short-term financing bonds and medium-term notes for 6 enterprises in Fujian, with an amount of RMB 3.908 billion. It organized over RMB 6.2 billion funds by way of credit assets transfer, trust wealth management, etc.
Taking the lead to fully serve the development of new growth areas
Fujian advanced the construction of ten new growth areas last year. Fully understanding that the construction of new growth areas is of great significance to the leaping of Fujian, IB broke through the routine practice and got fully engaged in the undertaking.
In July 2009, Pingtan Composite Pilot Zone was established under approval. Pingtan Island is positioned as a forerunning demonstrative zone for communication and cooperation across the Straits, a forerunning zone for the harmonious development of the economy and society in the Western Straits and an emerging ecological and livable island city in the Western Straits. As a main force for the construction of the Western Straits, IB has paid a lot of attention to the planning and construction of the Pingtan Pilot Zone. By identifying financial demands in an acute way, the bank established a theme research team for Pingtan Composite Pilot Zone at the earliest possible time, which was composed of the Corporate Finance Department of the Head Office and Fuzhou Branch, to carry out an early investigation in advance and closely trace the planning progress and early preparation of the pilot zone.
With the construction of Pingtan Pilot Zone in full swing and in order to further follow up and serve the construction of the pilot zone, IB entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with the Management Committee of the Pingtan Composite Pilot Zone on April 27, 2010 in Fuzhou. According to the agreement, IB would grant a credit line of no less than RMB 10 billion and give full support to the development and construction of the pilot zone. Therefore, IB has become the preferred banking partner of the pilot zone.
Over the past year, IB has closely followed upon the planning progress and preparation of the pilot zone and actively responded to projects in the zone. By the end of 2010, the bank has approved a credit amount of RMB 4 billion in total to Pingtan Pilot Zone, becoming the leading financial supporter of the zone. In order to better serve the construction of the pilot zone, IB also officially established Pingtan Branch on December 29, 2010, becoming the first national bank setting up a branch level banking office in the composite pilot zone. The bank grants greater business power to the branch, which is especially responsible for implementing project development and credit management in the pilot zone.
Not merely in Pingtan, IB also established branch offices in Xianyou, Putian; Shanghang, Longyan; Jianyang, Nanping; Anxi, Quanzhou, etc., to reinforce its financial services across the province, especially in new growth areas.
Grasping opportunities to support the construction of energy-conservation and a green Western Straits
Along the continuous progress in the construction of the Western Straits, it is becoming more and more pressing to push forward energy conservation and emissions reduction and to intensify environmental protection. IB brings into fully play its functions of guiding funds flow and arranging resources in a reasonable way to lend vigorous support to the development of energy conservation and emissions reduction in Fujian and spares no efforts to serve the construction of a strong ecological province in the Western Straits.
Fujian Oil Refining Chemical Co., Ltd. is a large petrochemical enterprise jointly established by Sinopec and Fujian Province. In its ethylene integration project, the electro-gas joint production plant emitted about 58,800 tons of waste residues, of which 18% was carbon, and this resulted in environmental pollution and a waste of resources. The company planned to treat the waste residue through incineration, and supply the steam generated during the incineration into the steam pipeline system of the ethylene project to meet the requirements of the ethylene process. In this way, a win-win effect might be achieved with both economic and environmental benefits.
The company carrying out the project is Fujian Environmental Engineering Co., Ltd.The company had limited funds and lacked guarantees that are easily acceptable for conventional credit, such as land and housing property. Therefore, the company encountered great difficulties in applying to banks for medium and long-term loans, and the failure to get loans greatly impacted the progress of the project. After the intervention and based on analysis, IB believed that the project boasted stable cash flows and would create tremendous social benefits at the same time. For this reason, the bank designed a financing program centering on cash flow, which accordingly lowered the requirements for guarantees. IB provided a total amount of loans up to RMB 26 million for five years to the project, safeguarding the smooth implementation and production of the project. As a result, Fujian Oil Refining Chemical achieved its aims of reduction, hazard-free treatment and reclamation in the disposal of solid waste from the ethylene project, thus harvesting significant economic and environmental benefits.
Other projects, such as the environmentally-friendly bus project of Fuzhou Public Transport System, the flue gas desulfurization and dust removal project of coal-fired generating unit of CHD Zhangping Thermal Power Plant, the project of Gutian Sewage Treatment Plant, and the energy-conserving transformation of Fujian Province Jianyang Wuyi MSG Co., Ltd., etc. were all put into operation under the vigorous support of IB. By the end of 2010, IB has granted 141 energy conservation and emissions reduction loans in accumulation across Fujian, totaling RMB 3.755 billion. It is expected that those loans may save 2,836,800t of standard coal a year, and reduce 7,293,900t of carbon emission, 30,000t of COD emission, and 13,700t of sulfur dioxide emissions a year. The green gas emission were reduced by an equivalent of shutting down seventeen 100MW thermal power plants.
Actively pushing forward the construction of livelihood projects with bold innovation
For years, IB has always provided active services to livelihood projects, performed its corporate social responsibilities, and lent sustained credit support to livelihood projects including the transformation of old towns, construction of small towns, urban infrastructure construction, etc. It has lent full support to the construction of a new social insurance card project, and increased loan supply to SMEs, start-up businesses and re-employment of laid-off workers, etc.
Centering on key livelihood projects like the transformation of old towns, construction of small towns, and post-disaster reconstruction, IB has increased credit support, granting new loans amounting to RMB 5.02 billion and keeping a loan balance up to RMB 2.343 billion in 2010.
As early as 2008, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Fujian Province planned to integrate the functions of the medical insurance card and hospital card, replacing hospital cards with social insurance cards and loading the function of the financial E-wallet into social insurance cards. In this way, card holders may conveniently make transfers and payments and receive treatment with “one card” across the province. After hearing the news, IB first got in contact with the Provincial Medical Insurance Center, sparing no effort to support the construction of the new social insurance card in Fujian Province.
On December 29, 2009, the first standard social insurance card in China – social insurance card of Fujian Province was officially issued in Fuzhou. By the end of 2010, the bank had issued over 200,000 social insurance cards at a provincial level.
Fujian is a big private economy province. Starting from the aspects of organizational structure, business flow, product design, and team development, etc., IB has integrated the resources of the Fujian Science and Technology Department, and Fujian SME Credit Re-guarantee Company, etc. at the same time, making bold innovation and endeavoring to solve the difficulty that SMEs and private business owners encounter in financing.
In June 2010, IB innovatively released “IB Open Sesame” – SME IPO Program in Fuzhou, targeting the different demands of “three-highs and six-new” SMEs (namely, three-highs: hi-tech, high growth and high added-value; six-new: new business model, new energy, new material, new economy, new agriculture and new service) at different stages of start-up, development and maturing. By combining conventional banking financial service tools and investment banking financial service tools, IB provided comprehensive one-stop financial service solutions integrating “creditor’s right + stock right + IPO” for cultivating and supporting the growth and listing of SMEs.
In December, IB signed and entered into a cooperation agreement with the Fujian Science and Technology Department, working jointly to construct the platform for financial service technology and its industrialized development, so as to promote the combination of financial and scientific innovation and support the development of technology-oriented SMEs in Fujian.
In order to better serve the development of SMEs in Fujian, IB also set up special offices for handling small-sized enterprise businesses in nine district-level cities across Fujian. In this way, the bank carried out specialized operation and normalized management of small-sized enterprise business to drive its leaping in terms of organizing structure, system and mechanism. By the end of 2010, the credit balance for small-sized enterprises in IB branches across Fujian reached RMB 62.989 billion, increasing RMB 17.262 billion over the beginning of the year and up by 37.75%.
Meanwhile, by improving its product portfolio under the “Xingyetong” integrated financial service program, IB significantly enhanced the level of its specialized financial service to individual industrial and commercial entities. By the end of 2010, the balance of “IB Pass” personal business loans reached RMB 6.063 billion, increasing by RMB 4.112 billion over the beginning of the year and up by 210.71%.
In order to solve the difficulty encountered by laid-off workers in start-up and re-employment, IB has actively extended guarantee-based petty loans to them and constructed platform services for their start-up and re-employment. In 2010, only Sanming Branch granted special guarantee-based petty loans of up to RMB 52.96 million in accumulation to support 662 laid-off workers to seek employment and start businesses independently, creating economic benefits of nearly RMB 5 million and favorable social benefits.
A forerunner in deepening economic and financial cooperation between Taiwan and Fujian
Due to the special geographical location, the Western Straits has become the preferred area for Taiwanese businessmen to make investments and operate businesses. As a leading financial enterprise in the Western Straits, IB has always been an important financial force to serve Taiwanese investors.
For years, IB has always taken as its duty to serve Taiwanese businessmen and the economic and trading exchanges across the straits. Utilizing its own flexible mechanism and superior service, the bank has provided strong financial support for Taiwanese businessmen and enterprises to start up business and seek development in Fujian.
On April 28, 2010, IB held an signing ceremony in Fuzhou with Taiwanese business associations of the nine district-level cities in Fujian, releasing eight services to support the development of Taiwanese enterprises and granting a credit line of no less than RMB 5 billion to meet the financing demand of Taiwanese enterprises.
This is an important action taken by the finance sector of Fujian Province to serve the construction of the Western Straits forerunning area and also the first overall business cooperation agreement reached between the head office of a national bank with all Taiwanese business associations across the province.
After signing, it is important to perform the agreement. IB has lent vigorous support to Taiwanese enterprises in terms of service programs and product innovation. For instance, IB has established complete service programs for Taiwanese enterprises and provided preferential treatment to those enterprises meeting the credit granting policies, supporting measures, approval procedures, etc.; IB actively promoted the cross-border RMB settlement business and NTD business so as to reduce exchange rate costs in import and export for Taiwanese businessmen, accelerate fund circulation, facilitate trade financing for Taiwanese enterprises and avoid exchange rate risks brought by RMB appreciation.
Over the past year, IB enhanced and deepened its cooperation with a large group of Taiwanese enterprises, such as Cheng Shin Rubber, CPT TECHNOLOGY, South East Motor, Tsannkuen Enterprise, Uni-president, etc, providing increasingly diversified financial services including supply chain financing, international settlement, assets management, debt financing, etc. By the end of the year, IB branches in Fujian granted credit of up to RMB 4.5 billion to Taiwanese enterprises and increased new loans by nearly RMB 2.5 billion in total. IB has become the one worthy for Taiwanese businessmen to trust and cooperate with.
IB also grasped the opportunity that of the state support for the forerunning construction of Fujian and the execution of the ECFA agreement, actively seeking breakthroughs in the following areas: establishing offices in Taiwan, participating in the across straits currency settlement mechanism, opening offshore finance business to Taiwan, constructing a regional finance center in the Western Straits, etc.
Give returns to the hometown and making a contribution to the public benefit with great enthusiasm
A build-to-last enterprise must be daring to take on responsibilities, public-spirited and give returns to society. Donating RMB 10 million to set up the “IB Charity Grant” to support poverty-stricken college students in Fujian to complete their schooling, direct assistance to poverty-stricken villages in the mountainous areas, donating funds and materials to disaster-stricken areas, organizing pair-assistance to poverty-stricken students, etc, IB’s people have tried their utmost to assume their due social responsibilities and to make their contribution to the construction of a harmonious Western Straits.
In June 2007, IB in partnership with Fujian Provincial Charity Federation, donated RMB 10 million to set up the “Industrial Bank Charity Grant”, which would, over five years, be given to 100 poverty-stricken students (each with RMB 4000 per year) who have excellent academic performance and a high morality from the following five universities: Xiamen University, Fuzhou University, Fujian Normal University, Fijian Agriculture and Forestry University and Jimei University. This is another important action taken by the bank to support the development of education in Fujian Province after the joint establishment of the “IB Scholarship for the Wellbeing of the Youth” with the Fujian Committee for the Wellbeing of the Youth.
In the middle and later period of June, 2010, Fujian Province witnessed a persistent extraordinary rainstorm, which was long and strong and caused a large-scale disaster, serious damage and grave losses.
IB paid close attention to the disaster. IB conscientiously ensured the service availability, quality and safety to guarantee the normal operations of branch offices and financial services in the disaster-stricken areas. In addition, the bank carried forward the fine tradition of “when disaster strikes, help comes from all sides”, and made generous donations of up to RMB 1 million to the disaster-stricken areas through the Fujian Provincial Charity Federation so as to support the disaster-stricken people to fight against floods and relieve disasters, restore production, and rebuild their homes. At the same time, IB actively communicated and contacted the local government, went to the disaster-stricken areas to learn of the disaster situation, so as to grasp the credit demands in a timely and accurate manner and to provide financial service for post-disaster restoration and re-construction in the disaster-stricken areas in a practical way.
On July 8, 2010, IB Nanping Branch and the Nanping Construction Bureau held the signing ceremony for their strategic cooperation. As agreed, IB would provide credit funds of up to RMB 1 billion in total to provide strong financial support to the urbanized transformation and post-disaster re-construction of Nanping. IB became the first financial institution to quickly respond to and assist the post-disaster reconstruction.
As a key enterprise of Fujian, IB has donated nearly RMB 40 million to Wenchuan, Yushu, Zhouqu and disaster-stricken areas in Taiwan, making an active contribution to constructing a harmonious Western Straits and highlighting the social images of Fujian and enterprises in the province. Looking back, IB’s people have made a proactive endeavor and reaped good rewards in the large construction stage of the Western Straits. Looking ahead into the future, with the broadening and deepening of construction in the Western Straits and the gradual progress of IB people’s objective to become “bigger and stronger and outperform”, the “Multi-Billion Program for Advancing Six Major Projects” will be carried out, blossom and be harvested in the Western Straits, and IB’s people will bring more anticipation and surprises for the leap forward of Fujian.