Shanghai and Moscow to promote financial cooperation

From September 6 to 10, Zheng Yang, secretary of the Party committee of Shanghai Finance and director of the Shanghai Municipal Financial Service Office led a delegation to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia, in a bid to introduce the construction of Shanghai international financial  and promote financial exchange and cooperation.

During the meeting on September 8, Zheng introduced details of the construction of Shanghai international financial , responded to questions proposed by Russian financial institutions and put forward four initiatives for further bilateral financial cooperation. First is to promote financial institution cooperation. Russian VTB Bank has already set up a branch in Shanghai. The setup of Cross-border financial institution will be further encouraged and cooperation in products and services will be boosted. Second is to promote finanical business cooperation. The two sides should enhance cooperation in areas of cross-border settlement, cross-border investment and financing and cross-border insurance to promoet the international status of Chinese yuan and ruble. Third is to promote financial supervision cooperation. To set up multi-layer and multi-channel communication platform for discussion of common concerns. Fourth is to promote fiancial talent cooperation and to provide more support and convenience for finanical personnel exchanges.

Representatives of VTB, Gazprom Bank, Rosselkhozbank, Russian Standard Bank, Credit Bank of Moscow, Defense Industrial Bank, Moscow branch of Bank of China, and Moscow office of Union Pay attended the meeting. During the visit, the delegation of the Office visited Savings Bank of the Russian Federation, the Department of Foreign Trade and International Relations of Moscow and Moscow Exchange.

During the meeting on September 9, Zheng introduced the latest development of the opening up of Shanghai’s financial sector and the construction of the city’s construction of an innovation and international financial . He said China and Russia has a good foundation for cooperation. Yuan and ruble started direct trading in 2010. The People’s Bank of China and Bank of Russia signed currency swap agreement in 2014. The New Development Bank set up headquarters in Shanghai in 2015. Shanghai and St. Petersburg as sister cities should bank on projects such as Baltic Pearl to promote bilateral financial cooperation and start a new chapter for financial cooperation and exchange.

Representatives of Import Bank of China in St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Sberbank and Vnesheconombank attended the meeting. During the tour, the delegation visited northwest branch of Bank of Russia and took a field trip to Baltic Pearl.