The 19th Asian Exim Banks Forum (AEBF) Annual Meeting was held from 17 to 18 October in Wuyishan, China.

This year's annual meeting was hosted by the Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank) with over 40 participants from different Asian countries. During the meeting, heads of delegations (HoDs) made presentations on the theme “Reinforcing Regional Cooperation and Connectivity in a Challenging Global Environment” and signed a joint statement. In the statement, member institutions reiterated their willingness to reinforce institutional cooperation and regional connectivity under the current global environment.

With total outstanding loan and commitments of $US479.05 billion as at the end of 2012, AEBF member institutions have played important roles in promoting the development and structural upgrading of regional trade, supporting local enterprise to inter-nationalize their business and stimulating domestic growth and employment.

China Eximbank has always attached great importance to the role of AEBF, actively participated in bilateral and multilateral activities of the forum and responded positively to all its initiatives. By the end of 2012, with outstanding loans in Asia accounting for over 50% of the total, China Eximbank has financed a series of major infrastructure projects in Asia and made due contribution to reinforcing regional cooperation and connectivity.

On the initiative of the Export-Import Bank of India (India Exim), the inaugural meeting of the AEBF was convened in India in 1996. With the new membership of Vietnam Development Bank this year, the AEBF has become a more inclusive and functional forum with ten regular members from Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam and the Asian Development Bank as its permanent observer.