Chinese financial institutions play a key role to support the Belt and Road Initiative

As infrastructure projects come as the central focus of the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese financial institutions, especially commercial banks, will play a more important role in the process under the enormous impact of the initiative on capital markets due to the sheer scale of funding that it requires, many experts said on Thursday during a financial forum.

The forum, titled 2017 Belt and Road Investing and Financing Forum, was organized by China Minsheng Banking Co.Ltd and CaiXin Media in Beijing.

"The potential of the initiative to promote the infrastructure development as well as other industries including logistics and trade in those countries will also have great impact on global investment,” said Hong Qi, chairman of China Minsheng Banking Co. Ltd.

"Currently a global network on financial institutions has been built, but it’s unable to meet the urgent need of various projects due to the large scale of funding and that’s where China’s financial institutions should come in,” he added.

He Yafei, former vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said to help provide financial support, Chinese commercial banks will play an important role to ensure sustainable development especially in the developing countries.

An advantage that Chinese financial institutions in supporting the belt and road is that they regulate substantial foreign exchange reserves, and that can be used to invest in the projects, said Lin Yifu, professor of economics at Peking University.

Under the Belt and Road Initiative, China is planning to cooperate with more countries in the fields of infrastructure construction, international cooperation in production capacity, tourism and cultural industry, all of which require a huge amount of funding.