MILAN, Jan. 22 (Class Editori) — The digital cross-border matchmaking platform developed by ICBC, the biggest bank worldwide, arrives in Italy. ICBC Business Matchmaker has been independently created by the Chinese institute and is open to companies from all over the world. The system is based on the network of ICBC global services, on the main FinTech developments and on the wide customer base in order to help Chinese and foreign companies to integrate into international industrial, supply and value chains and to promote global cooperation in goods, services, technologies, projects and funds.
Through the Italy China Foundation, companies will be able to register for free to the portal by entering their business data, some specifications of the products and requested and/or offered services with a view to cooperating with the Chinese counterparts. The Foundation, together with the ICBC Milan Branch staff, will coordinate the process in order to make the signing up to the platform more efficient for the companies and to organize the focus and the B2B initiatives, by involving specific sectors and different geographical areas.
The platform is already provided with several basic functions, like "Marketplace" and "Events". "Marketplace" supports the companies in publishing and researching online products and cooperation projects while "BMM Events" allows to attend matchmaking events both online and offline.
To date, the platform attracted almost 20,000 businesses, most of them Chinese, and reached a strategic cooperation with several trade organizations in Italy, China, Argentina, Singapore and Malaysia, thanks to which a global open and inclusive network is developing. Several events of online and offline matchmaking have been held, including the Cloud Matchmaking Fair Argentina-China in 2020, with 70% of the cooperation purposes reached, for a total value of almost 10 billion yuan.
On November 6, 2020, during the China International Import Expo (CIIE), with the help of ICBC Business Matchmaker, ICBC successfully organized the support event Belt and Road Trade Fair, which gave companies the opportunity to experience the whole process of global matchmaking. The event attracted on-site 400 companies from 32 countries and regions, including Italy, and favored the signing of nearly 300 contracts and MOUs with a total estimated value of over 3 billion yuan, gaining wide recognition from enterprises around the world.
"It is a project that aims to help Italian and Chinese companies, especially the SMEs that most need to be supported in this delicate phase, to build collaborative relations," explained Mario Boselli, President of the Italy China Foundation.
"In our country, ICBC will manage the technical and operational part of the system while the Foundation will identify and channel the interests of its members and companies in the system and the access to the system itself," added Marco Bettin, Chief Operating Officer of the Italy China Foundation.
Two innovations were announced by Li Zong, Deputy GM of Inclusive Finance Dept. of ICBC Head Office in his greeting from Beijing. "We have added the companies that attended today's presentation to the platform's special guest list in order to make their sign-up process more efficient," he said. "In addition, we will launch the new version of the platform in June this year, with many new functions for registered companies".
Sergio Miele, Senior Business Development Consultant of ICBC Milan Branch, added: "This is an extraordinary tool, the implementation of which has been accelerated by the ongoing tragic pandemic; however, it is also part of a process of digitalization of economy and trade, which we in Italy are behind with, but which has already begun in China many years ago. Italian companies, and especially SMEs, which are the most interested in expanding their activities abroad, are asked to make a cultural change, and to realize that, in order to compete, it is not only necessary to innovate their business model, but, above all, their way of thinking".
(Source:Class Editori)
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