Asiamoney New Silk Road Finance Awards

This award recognises the financial institution that has done most to bring BRI-related deals to the capital markets. There’s only one viable winner: Pakistan’s MCB Bank.

Sri Lanka, with its strong manufacturing and ports sectors, is an important way station on the Maritime Silk Road, boasting strong and long-standing trade links with both China and the west.

One could say that Standard Chartered was working on the Belt and Road Initiative long before it was born, having set up China desks, staffed by experienced Chinese-speaking bankers, in south Asia, southeast Asia, and the Middle East since the early 2000s.

The Belt and Road Initiative is a political project as much as it is an economic or a financial one – but it has also become China’s big globalization play, a concerted attempt to redraw the rules of global trade in its own image and to its own benefit. There were many worthy candidates for this award, including China Development Bank and Bank of China.

MCB Bank, led by chief executive Imran Maqbool, is a worthy winner of best regional bank in south Asia for BRI. It is Pakistan’s third-largest financial institution by market capitalization and the fourth-largest by deposits. It has a roster of China-based corporate clients that spans energy, renewables and infrastructure, including Shandong Hi-Speed, Sinohydro, CSun Solar and Hangzhou Qiantang River Electric.

Standing out as Asiamoney’s best Belt and Road project in the Middle East and Africa is the new standard gauge railway line between Nairobi and Mombasa. The railway line opened in June this year and is financed by China Exim Bank and the Kenyan government. It was built by China Road and Bridge Corporation and the Chinese state-owned enterprise will operate the railway for the first five years.

The internationalization of the renminbi goes hand in hand with China’s Belt and Road Initiative. As Chinese investment grows globally, so will the use of its currency. Indeed, some analysts expect full convertibility of the currency to come in the next few years.

China is keen to explore Belt and Road Initiative opportunities and projects in the Middle East and Africa and is becoming more active in the region.

Egypt and the Suez Canal provide a crucial section in China’s Maritime Silk Road, connecting Asia with Europe and providing China with easier access to trade in the region.