On November 9, Chen Xinjian, President of Industrial Bank, was invited to attend the Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum 2023 and delivered a keynote speech at the parallel forum on “Building a New Model of Integration Between Digital and Real Economies, Aiding the New Development of Industrial Digital Finance.”
Chen Xinjian stated, “The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized ‘accelerating the development of the digital economy and promoting the deep integration of the digital economy with the real economy.’ The recent Central Financial Work Conference outlined the direction for developing the digital economy and digital finance, emphasizing the importance of advancing scientific and technological finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance.”
In recent years, in line with the burgeoning digital economy, Industrial Bank has treated digital transformation as critical to its survival. The bank has implemented technological system reforms, increased investment in technological resources, and advanced the ‘10,000 Talents Plan’ for technological personnel, with annual technology investment exceeding 8 billion yuan and nearly 7,000 technology professionals.
Building on this foundation, IB has been actively exploring digital finance to support the high-quality development of the real economy, achieving remarkable results. President Chen focused on three exemplary practices: leveraging data resources to build a service platform for SMEs, extending service chains to construct a supply chain finance ecosystem, and innovating risk control models to promote the development of science and technology finance. He shared his insights on these topics.
In the field of financial services for SMEs, addressing the issues of “difficult, expensive, and slow financing” for SMEs, IB, under the leadership of the Fujian Provincial Government, has been assisting in building and operating the Fujian Financial Services Cloud Platform since 2019. This initiative has gradually shaped a new inclusive finance model integrating “Data + Policy + Finance + Ecosystem.” The platform now has 340,000 registered users and has provided nearly 300 billion RMB in financing. IB has also aided in constructing platforms in Ningxia, Yunnan, and Anshan, Liaoning, becoming a vital financial infrastructure in these areas.
“We firmly believe that data has become a key production factor, and there is still great potential to be unleashed,” Chen stated. He called for concerted efforts to clarify data ownership and profit-sharing issues, strengthen the data standard system, and improve the data trading market to make data more accessible, useful, and effective.
In the supply chain finance sector, IB has been actively using digitalization to build a supply chain finance ecosystem, extending from financial to non-financial services to enhance customer loyalty. This approach not only promotes the development of supply chain finance but also fosters the digital transformation of industries.
Chen cited IB’s collaboration with a leading new energy vehicle manufacturer as an example. Over the past decade, IB has transitioned from providing traditional services like short-term loans and bank acceptance drafts to actively developing supply chain finance since 2019. The focus is on efficient settlement and financing services for third-party dealers through system integration, making IB a primary cooperating bank for such transactions. Based on deep collaboration with this manufacturer and its upstream and downstream partners, IB has extended its services from B2B to B2C, offering personal loan schemes to dealer owners, expanding auto installment services, and progressively improving the connected automotive ecosystem. Additionally, IB has been instrumental in establishing an electronic bill management system and a global cash management system, aiding clients in integrated management of domestic and foreign currency accounts, both domestically and internationally, further enhancing collaboration stickiness.
IB is actively constructing supply chain finance ecosystems in industries such as new retail, new energy, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, education, and residential construction, precisely extending service and value chains to continually strengthen and enhance its competitiveness in supply chain finance.
In the realm of science and technology finance, last year, IB identified sci-tech finance as one of the “Five New Tracks” for strategic focus, alongside inclusive finance, automotive finance, energy finance, and industrial park finance. Addressing the unique characteristics of sci-tech enterprises, such as limited assets for collateral, long research and development cycles, and slow profit generation, IB innovatively introduced the “Technology Flow” evaluation system. This system evaluates enterprises from the perspective of their scientific and technological innovation capabilities, providing a comprehensive profile of sci-tech enterprises for precise financial service provision, effectively boosting their development. Since its introduction two years ago, the “Technology Flow” system has processed financing needs exceeding 2 trillion yuan, with nearly 600 billion yuan in various financings already disbursed.
“Through the ‘Technology Flow’ system, we realize that risk management is not just about braking but also about accelerating. By fully utilizing data and building excellent models, we can better balance development and safety, promoting financial services to better serve the real economy,” said Chen Xinjian.
This year’s forum, co-hosted by the Beijing Municipal People’s Government, the People’s Bank of China, the National Financial Supervisory Administration, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Xinhua News Agency, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, invited over 400 guests from more than 30 countries and regions. They exchanged views on current economic and financial hot topics, exploring ways to deepen international cooperation and share opportunities.