China's ICBC targets expansion in East Malaysia

ICBC sees its expansion in Kuching as a gateway to further expand throughout the Sarawak and into Sabah.

Sarawak economic stability is one of the main reason that attracted ICBC to setup its East Malaysian regional branch here in Kuching that will oversee the Sarawak and Sabah operations, said said ICBC deputy CEO Xie Shaoxiong.

He foresaw Sarawak to be the next economic development centre in Malaysia by 2020 and remained confident the economic boom here would give the group a vast opportunity within the financing cycle.

“With support from the Chinese and Malaysian governments, we believe we will be able to deliver much more to the community here, by providing and facilitate the trade in terms of renminbi,” Xie noted.

He further revealed that there are many Chinese entrepreneurs in East Malaysia who have a lot of active transactions in China.

While strengthening its footprint in Kuching, ICBC is also eyeing to setup branches in most of the cities and towns throughout Sarawak and Sabah.

“In fact, ICBC is already starting to look into Sabah and management has visited several areas over the past few months. They are now doing their planning and arrangement,” said one of its senior management staff.

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