China's ICBC bank offers $500m in loan to Indonesian Eximbank

JAKARTA -- The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) inked a $500 million loan deal on Tuesday with Indonesia's state-run Eximbank to help boost the country's foreign trade and infrastructure.

The five-year loan was jointly provided by ICBC Indonesia and ICBC Asia, subsidiaries of the ICBC Limited.

The deal is part of a $20 billion loan facility signed in Beijing earlier this year, which is aimed at helping spur the Indonesian economy.

The loans provided by the ICBC would be channeled to Indonesia' s state-run firms.

"Through the signing of the loan deal, ICBC Indonesia reaffirms its commitment to become the 'financial bridge' between Indonesia and China," President Director of ICBC Indonesia Shen Xiaoqi said.

The ICBC acted as the facility provider, while ICBC Asia was the lead arranger of the club deal loan, Shen said.

Complying with Indonesian leaders' request, ICBC Indonesia would focus its operation on helping finance infrastructure projects and cooperation with Indonesia's state-run firms, he said.

Indonesia Eximbank Executive Director Ngalim Sawega said the cooperation with the ICBC would help the bank gain funds that would eventually be used to boost the nation's foreign trade. "Such a cooperation would be continued in the future," he said.

Hailing the deal, Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng said financial cooperation was an essential components in the bilateral strategic relations between China and Indonesia, which have developed into a new and interesting growth driver agent.

"China and Indonesia have accomplished astonishing results from their mutual cooperation in various areas that include economy crisis prevention, building up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and securing the state financial resiliency," the ambassador said.