China Construction Bank (CCB) on Wednesday rang the market-opening bell to celebrate the listing of a 1.2 billion U.S. dollar bond on Nasdaq Dubai, Nasdaq Dubai said in an e-mailed statement.
The exchange said the listing by the Hong Kong Branch of CCB "underlines the country's growing financial activities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the wider region."
CCB's market capitalisation reached 192.6 billion dollars at the end of 2016, the fifth highest of any bank in the world, and it has branches and subsidiaries in 29 countries.
It is the second bond listing by the Hong Kong Branch of CCB on Nasdaq Dubai under the bank's six billion dollar Medium Term Note Programme, following a 600 million dollar bond that listed on the exchange in October 2016.
Guo You, chairman of the Board of Supervisors of CCB, said "The capital raised through our bond supports our growing commercial banking and other activities in the UAE, the Middle East and beyond, under the Belt and Road Initiative."
The Belt and Road Initiative is a strategic masterplan introduced by China's President Xi Jinping in 2013, aiming at integrating Asia with the Middle East, Africa and Europe economically.
Essa Kazim, governor of the banking free zone DIFC which harbours Nasdaq Dubai as a licensed market, said Dubai is committed to expanding its economic links with China in order "to support dynamic cross border business initiatives" and promote mutual prosperity and development.
"The capital markets are one of the many areas in which our relationship is strengthening, and we will continue to enhance our exchange infrastructure to support the business needs of Chinese institutions," he added.
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations over 30 years ago, China-UAE bilateral trade has grown from 63 million dollars in 1984 to 54.8 billion dollars in 2014, and is estimated to reach 60 billion dollars by the end of 2016, according to UAE official data.
More than 4,000 Chinese firms operate in the UAE where over 300,000 Chinese citizens reside in.
