OREANDA-NEWS. April 25, 2013. Bank of China Berlin Branch held an opening ceremony. The branch is the fourth established in Germany by BOC following the Frankfurt Branch, Hamburg Branch and Dusseldorf Branch. Over 200 attendees including Li Jun, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of BOC, Shi Mingde, the Chinese ambassador to Germany, WolfgangLser, Minister of Berlin Economic and Technological and Scientific Research, Arne Friedrich, General Manager of Germany Trade & Invest, as well as representatives of local government departments, the financial sector and persons in charge of the Chinese-funded organizations were present at the opening ceremony.

Li Jun said in his speech that the Sino-German cooperation has a solid foundation and covers broad areas. Since the Frankfurt Branch was established in 1989, BOC has been committed to the development of Sino-German economy and trade. Berlin Branch will continue to play the advantages of being international, diversified and intelligent and make new contributions to promote the development of the bilateral trade and economic development and financial cooperation.

Shi Mingde pointed out that over the past 40 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, the economic and trade exchanges have been boosted with areas of cooperation expanded and the level of cooperation continuously upgraded. In 2012, China's direct investment in Germany surpassed the German direct investment in China for the first time, thus opening a new chapter of Sino-German economic and trade cooperation. He believed that the opening of the branch is bound to inject new vitality into the development of economic and trade relations between the two countries.

Berlin Branch is located in downtown Berlin, with its business scope covering foreign currency deposits, loans, remittances, online banking, bill collection, currency exchange, agent-witnessed account opening, overseas students’ accounts, debit cards, consumer credit and so on.

BOC was the first to establish its branches in Germany. At present, BOC has established overseas institutions in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as well as 36 foreign countries. It can provide financial services in Oman, Peru, Ghana, Turkey, Uganda, and Finland and other countries by the Chinese business counter, and has forged agency cooperation relations with over 1,600 foreign banks in nearly 180 countries and regions.