Romanian Senate President Teodor Melescanu addresses the opening ceremony of Bank of China (BOC) Bucharest branch in Bucharest, capital of Romania, Dec. 16, 2019. BOC held an opening ceremony of its Bucharest branch at the Romanian Parliament Palace on Monday, making it the first branch of a Chinese financial institution in the country. (Xinhua/Chen Jin)
BUCHAREST, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of China (BOC) held an opening ceremony of its Bucharest branch at the Romanian Parliament Palace on Monday, making it the first branch of a Chinese financial institution in the country.
Romanian Senate President Teodor Melescanu said at the ceremony that the BOC is welcome to come to Romania and he firmly believed that the business communities of the two countries will contribute to the overall development of the bilateral relations.
"The opening in Bucharest of a branch of the Bank of China represents an important moment for both Romania and China, under the auspices of the 70th anniversary of uninterrupted diplomatic relations as well as the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the comprehensive partnership of friendship and cooperation between Romania and P.R. of China," said the official.
According to him, Romania wants to better engage and participate in the regional connectivity projects between Europe and China, by leveraging existing cooperation platforms, such as the EU strategy on Connecting Europe and Asia or the EU-China Connectivity Platform.
"We want them to be profitable for Romania as well, and therefore to increase the synergies between them and the '17 + 1 Format' or the 'Belt and Road' Initiative," he said.
In his turn, Antonel Tanase, the Secretary-General of the Romanian Government, said he believed that the entry of the BOC will bring new added value to the Romanian financial industry and the BOC will become a long-term partner, which can effectively contribute to achieving the economic and financial development goals of both countries.
BOC Chairman of the Board Liu Liange said in a speech that Central and Eastern Europe has always been a highly valued overseas market for the BOC and it is hoped that by establishing a Bucharest branch, it will further enhance its service capabilities in the region... and vigorously support local enterprises to explore the Chinese market and build a solid financial bridge for China-Romania cooperation.
Chinese Ambassador to Romania Jiang Yu cheered the presence of the BOC in Romania, stressing that the move has further enriched the funding channels and will effectively break the financial bottleneck of pragmatic bilateral cooperation, helping promote the growth of trade and investment between the two sides.
