Pinglu Canal Opens To Navigation: A Waterway Linking Rivers And Seas, Finance Paving The Way
Closely following the requirements for expanding high-level opening-up, the Agricultural Bank of China has deeply integrated high-quality financial services into the broader picture of China–ASEAN cooperation and development. By increasing financial support for key areas such as infrastructure, cross-border trade, and industrial coordination, it helps make China–ASEAN economic and trade cooperation closer, industrial integration deeper, and regional economic integration more sustained, providing solid financial support for the steady and sustained development of China–ASEAN economic and trade cooperation.
Long-Term Funding: Building a Solid Financial Foundation for a "Project of the Century"
"Since construction began on the Pinglu Canal, Guangxi's industrial structure has undergone noticeable changes. Looking at the loan portfolio of our Qinzhou Branch, as of the end of August this year, the outstanding loans for advanced port-side manufacturing and for smart and green port construction had basically doubled compared with the end of 2022," said Liu Mu, deputy general manager of the Agricultural Bank of China Guangxi Qinzhou Branch.
How can a single canal move an entire regional economy? It is understood that the Pinglu Canal is a backbone project of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, with a total length of 134.2 kilometers. Once open to navigation, the canal will directly open up the shortest, most cost-effective, and most efficient sea route from Guangxi and the southwestern region to ASEAN. River-sea direct vessels will be able to complete the entire journey without changing ships or making transshipments. After the canal opens, vessels will be able to sail directly from inland river ports in southwest China to coastal areas and major ASEAN ports, helping the southwestern hinterland move from being an "inland periphery" to an "open frontier" and promoting the organic connection between the western region and high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.
Image: Agricultural Bank client managers visit the Qinzhou Port Base of the New Land-Sea Corridor Comprehensive Cold-Chain Logistics project
On August 28, 2022, construction of the Pinglu Canal began. The project has a long construction cycle and a large investment scale, placing high demands on funding supply. At the initial stage of project construction, the Agricultural Bank of China listed it as a key supported project, established a three-level coordination mechanism linking the province, city, and county, set up a dedicated working group, went deep into the project front line to match needs, and tailored comprehensive financial service plans according to the characteristics of each stage of construction.
"Major projects have long construction cycles and large funding needs. Financial support cannot only address the question of whether money is available; it must also address how to ensure supply is adequate and stable," said Shen Wei, deputy general manager of the Agricultural Bank of China Guangxi Branch. To meet this need, the Guangxi Branch took the lead in approving fixed-asset loans and pre-project loans for the Pinglu Canal and innovatively launched a financing plan featuring a "50-year loan term plus a 15-year grace period," providing long-term and stable funding support for project construction.
To date, the Agricultural Bank of China Guangxi Branch has provided more than 12 billion yuan in comprehensive credit lines to the Pinglu Canal project and related entities, and has led the arrangement of a commercial bank syndicated loan, deeply participating in project financing.
Technology Empowerment: Weaving a Smart Network for "River-Sea-Ocean Multimodal Transport"
Guangxi sits at a key node of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor. Previously, the Xijiang shipping trunk line, the Pinglu Canal route, and the Beibu Gulf port ship locks were dispatched independently by region. How can rivers, waterways, and seas truly be "connected"? Building the Guangxi Water Transport River-Sea-Ocean Integrated Dispatch Platform has become an important starting point for solving this problem. Once completed, the platform will promote integrated river-sea-ocean dispatch in Guangxi's water transport, enabling previously fragmented shipping links to gradually achieve coordinated interconnection.
After learning of the system construction needs, the Agricultural Bank of China Guangxi Branch focused on the smart operation goal of "pay once at one point, pass locks at multiple points, and clear funds flexibly" for vessels, and launched a dual-track service scenario based on the payment characteristics of different types of shipowners to help vessels navigate smoothly.
ge: The Madao Hub of the Pinglu Canal
For corporate shipowners with large-value, high-frequency payment characteristics, the Bank innovatively introduced the concept of "air accounts," adopting a "transfer top-up plus bank-enterprise direct connection" model to solve payment issues for corporate shipowners, while achieving seamless connection with the smart clearing system and dispatch system. This measure ensures the safety of large-value funds while meeting operational efficiency requirements.
For individual shipowners, the Bank adopted a "pay-as-you-go plus air split" model. Individual shipowners can flexibly and conveniently complete on-site payments and mobile payments through diversified payment channels such as mini-programs, aggregated QR codes, and POS machines, effectively meeting their instant payment habits and various service needs.
"The two models run in parallel and complement each other. Based on lock-passage data, the system automatically and flexibly allocates funds to each ship lock entity by lockage, achieving the smart navigation goal of 'pay once at one point, pass locks at multiple points.' Relying on the first-of-its-kind 'acquiring plus clearing' dual-role collaborative service model in the water transport field, we have achieved model innovation in financial infrastructure services," Shen Wei said. This innovation has greatly improved navigation efficiency and laid a fintech foundation for building an efficient and coordinated "river-sea multimodal transport" smart water transport system.
Precision Irrigation: Helping Characteristic Industries Set Sail for Overseas Markets
"We have long imported chili peppers from India, transported them to China for primary processing, then sold them to the Sichuan-Chongqing region while also exporting to Vietnam," said the person in charge of Guangxi Deshengxing International Supply Chain Co., Ltd.
The company is a comprehensive foreign trade company specializing in the import and export of chili peppers, peanuts, and star anise. Chili pepper procurement is highly seasonal and requires concentrated funding, and micro and small enterprises generally face problems such as insufficient collateral, so the company once faced liquidity pressure.
In response to the company's needs, the Agricultural Bank of China Guangxi Qinzhou Port Sub-branch proactively reached out and, together with the Qinzhou Micro and Small Enterprise Financing Guarantee Company, provided the company with a 3 million yuan working capital loan through a "bank-guarantee cooperation" model, earmarked for chili pepper procurement. The loan effectively eased the company's funding pressure during the concentrated procurement of raw materials, helping it promptly secure high-quality supply sources and stabilize production and operations.
On this basis, in response to the company's settlement needs in cross-border trade, the Agricultural Bank of China Guangxi Qinzhou Port Sub-branch fully leveraged its professional advantages in international business to provide a package of cross-border financial services covering import payment and export collection. To date, it has handled more than 15 million US dollars in international settlements for the company.
Raw materials are imported from India, value is added through domestic processing, and products are then sold domestically to the Sichuan-Chongqing region and exported to Vietnam. This "chili pepper road" connects overseas production areas at one end and domestic and Southeast Asian consumer demand at the other. Now, with the Pinglu Canal officially open to navigation, the logistics channels for the company's raw material imports and ASEAN exports will become smoother, logistics and time costs are expected to fall further, and market reach will also expand accordingly, creating more favorable conditions for expanding import and export scale and deepening its presence in the ASEAN market.
Image: The Agricultural Bank of China Guangxi Branch supports the renovation and functional upgrading of berth facilities at Qinzhou Port
From the tens of billions of yuan in credit lines for the "canal of the century," to the fintech foundation for smart shipping, and to the precision irrigation of characteristic industries, the Agricultural Bank of China is using full-chain, multi-level financial services to continuously transform financial strength into momentum for high-quality development, enabling the "golden waterway" to generate "golden benefits" and injecting inexhaustible financial momentum into the southwestern hinterland's efforts to embrace ASEAN and strengthen itself through the sea.
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