On November 7, 2015, ICBC and Pacific International Lines (Pte) Ltd. signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Global Cooperation of Building the Maritime Silk Road in the 21st Century in Singapore. Both sides will work together to build the maritime silk road in the 21st century and promote "waterway connection", "financial integration" and "trade coordination" between Singapore, China and the Southeast Asian countries along the maritime silk road with Singapore as the pivot point.

According to the MOU, ICBC will leverage its abundant financial resources and the group-wide business network in the countries along the "Belt and Road" to establish a global service team through the Head Office's special financing team, wholly-owned subsidiary ICBC Financial Leasing and Singapore Branch to provide prioritized, high-quality and efficient comprehensive financial services for Pacific International Lines worldwide, including ship financing, working capital loans, trade finance, international settlement, FX and derivative trading, precious metals, investment banking, bond underwriting and issue, and structured financing.

Mr. Zhang Songsheng, Director and General Manager of Pacific International Lines said: "We are glad to sign the cooperation MOU with ICBC. As one of the world's largest commercial banks, ICBC has an extensive business network and strong service capability worldwide. The signing of the cooperation MOU will also help both sides to seize the opportunity of the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative. The 'Belt and Road’ initiative covers many countries and regions and involves many industries, huge amounts of funds and a lot of human and material resources. The goal of the 'Belt and Road’ initiative is to connect China and the countries along the line in such areas as capital and energy and achieve a win-win situation on the basis of mutual trust. We expect our cooperation with ICBC will achieve even greater success with the strong momentum of the 'Belt and Road’ initiative'!"

"As a market-leading company in the region's shipping industry, Pacific International Lines has extensive and in-depth cooperation opportunities with ICBC in a lot of areas", said Mr. Zhang Weiwu, General Manager of ICBC Singapore Branch,."The ship financing project contained in the cooperation MOU is a good attempt of both sides in supporting the 'Going Global of China's equipment', and I believe that both sides will complete more quality projects in the future and jointly build the 21st century maritime silk road with action".

Incorporated in Singapore, Pacific International Lines is one of the largest container shipping companies in Southeast Asia, and its operations include marine transport, container manufacturing and logistics services, with its container liner and bulk transport service network coversing over 500 places in 100 countries worldwide.

ICBC Group operates across six continents and its overseas network covers 42 countries and regions. It is the largest Chinese financial institution in the world by network coverage. With its 120 institutions in the 18 countries along the "Belt and Road", ICBC is the largest Chinese financial institution by the coverage of the countries along the "Belt and Road". As at the end of June 2015, ICBC provided financing support for 115 overseas projects along the "Belt and Road", involving a total amount of USD19.9 billion, covering over 30 countries across Asia, Africa and Europe, accounting for one third of the countries along the "Belt and Road", and covering such industries as power, transport, oil and gas, mining, telecommunications, machinery, industrial park construction and agriculture.