(Hong Kong, 27 October 2016) ― International Business Settlement Holdings Limited(“IBS” or the “Group”; HKEX stock code: 00147.HK) today announced that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Central Bank of Laos People’s Democratic Republic (the “Central Bank of Laos”), pursuant to which the Central Bank of Laos and IBS intend to set up a joint venture which will use the platform of the next generation settlement and clearing network of IBS so that Laos will become one of the clearing settlement centres in the Southeast Asia. The Central Bank of Laos has also agreed to form a joint working group with IBS to study and push forward the implementation of the project together with IBS.
The government of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) has been actively promoting the construction of “One Belt and One Road” Initiative and the achievement is evident. On 8 September 2016, the PRC government and the Laos government signed a memorandum of understanding between the two countries in relation to publishing the “Planning Outline for Jointly Advancing the ‘One Belt and One Road’ Establishment Cooperation”. This is the first cooperation document for jointly establishing “One Belt and One Road” signed between the PRC government and a government of a country situated along the economic corridor in the Central South peninsula of China. The governments of the two countries agreed to make cooperation in the areas of infrastructure, agriculture, energy building, industrial agglomeration, cultural tourism, finance, business and investment. In addition, the two governments also signed a series of documents including the “Agreement on Confirmation and Joint Promotion for Production Capacity and Investment Cooperation of Key Projects”,to further deepen the bilateral cooperation.
Mr.Luo Feng, Executive Director and Chairman of the Group said,“Following the strategy of the PRC government,the Group’s cooperation with Central Bank of Laos is one of our key steps to deploy the next generation worldwide settlement and clearing network. This cooperation will provide more convenient financial clearing settlement services for the gradual increase in economic, trading and investment activities between the two countries. To grab this opportunity, the Group will continue to actively explore the co-operation opportunities with various banks and financial institutions along the ‘One Belt and One Road’ network so as to extend the reach of our business,strengthen the Group’s future growth, and to bring great confidence and deliver better returns to our investors.”
IBS is actively developing its new business of arranging the next generation settlement network.The Company intends to based on its distributed network, block chain and other technologies, deploy the next generation worldwide settlement and clearing network. It will provide a fast, highly efficient and low cost financial expressway between different countries by connecting their central banks’ real-time settlement and clearing systems. Based on its unique block chain regional settlement circle technology, the Group will construct a multi-currency, internationalized and distributed global settlement platform. This platform is aimed at realizing point-to-point, “7X24” (i.e. 24hours a day, 7 days a week), multi-currency and real-time fund settlement and clearing for cross border trading businesses and individuals around the world.
