Today’s Huadu News: In order to implement the central government’s requirements for "foreign trade, foreign investment, and financial stability" and the spirit of the Opinions on Financial Support to the Construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Guangzhou Local Financial Regulatory Bureau and Huadu District government jointly held on August 10  "Green Empowerment for Open Facilitation “policy explanation meeting about how FT accounts can help Coordinated Development of Green Finance and Green Industry. The meeting invited relevant persons in charge of Guangzhou Branch of the People's Bank of China and Guangzhou Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China as special guests, and witnessed the participation of representatives of over 40 ODI companies and high-quality foreign-invested companies that had needs for cross-border financial services.

　　  Huadu's green finance is soaring

　　  As a national green finance reform and innovation pilot zone, Huadu District is an active promoter of the development of green finance in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. As of the end of June, the District recorded a loan balance of 126.119 billion yuan, up 19.67% year-on-year, and an increase of 5.18% in loans-to-deposits ratio; in particular, the green credit balance was 20.629 billion yuan, 55.54% up year-on-year, and the SME loan balance was 24.738 billion yuan, up by 25.14 %. In the first half of the year, loans to micro, small, and medium enterprises increased by 31.62% over the same period last year to 12.026 billion yuan, with a weighted average interest rate of 4.76%, 10.55% down, which effectively mitigated the problem of difficult and overpriced financing for enterprises.

　　  Pilot project of FT account

　　  Promotes reform and development

　　  FT accounts are designed as an important institutional arrangement in the quest of exploring facilitation of foreign exchange for investment and financing activities, expanding financial market access and preventing financial risks. Using an FT account, which integrates local and foreign currencies and applies the "separate accounting “for deposit or financing purposes, enterprises can make better use of financial resources in both domestic and overseas markets, reduce their costs in management of local currency accounts and foreign currency accounts, and in foreign exchange settlement. FT accounts also facilitate enterprises' allocation of funds across borders and engagement in innovative cross-border financial business to improve their efficiency fund operations. FT account pilot program in the green finance pilot zone will help move the opening up of green finance to another level, support green enterprises in the pilot zone to make good use of the financial resources of the overseas market, facilitate cross-border investment and financing, and promote the capacity of green finance to support the development of green industries in the Greater Bay Area.

　　  The next move of Huadu District will be to continue to increase policy publicity of the financial innovation of FT accounts, and to take advantage of FT account policy of the pilot zone and the green financial innovations in the Greater Bay Area to provide enterprises with more convenient cross-border financial services, facilitate foreign trade related foreign currency exchange, and attract more high-quality enterprises to settle in Huadu. At the same time, a whole range of measures will be taken to promote coordinated development of green finance and green industries in the Greater Bay Area, including further expanding overseas financing channels for enterprises, actively promoting green enterprises in the District to issue green bonds in Hong Kong and Macau, encouraging enterprises to apply for cross-border direct loans through FT accounts, guiding overseas investment institutions to participate in Guangdong carbon market through cross-border RMB settlement, importing overseas funds from Hong Kong and Macau for investment in green projects, green enterprises and infrastructure construction in the Greater Bay Area.

　　  Promote coordinated development of green industries

　　  According to Deputy District Mayor Zheng Zhongmin, the successful launch of FT account system is a powerful measure to facilitate investment and financing related foreign currency exchange in the pilot zone, deepen the financial reform and opening up, and promote green finance. It will help create an internationalized business environment, further enhance the capacity of green finance in serving the real economy, and promote coordinated development of green finance and green industries in the Greater Bay Area.

　　  It has been learned that the pilot program of FT accounts will help to further enhance the role of Huadu District as a "test field” for green finance reform and innovation, so that the green finance can provide more diversified cross-border investment and financing services to green enterprises and projects in the District, and improve its services to the real economy and green industries.