(6 October 2009 – Asia) Mike Smith, chief executive officer, ANZ, was in Asia last week kicking off the bank’s expansion plans in China.Straight off the back of the A$1.9 billion purchase of ING Australia last month, Mr Smith was in China advising officials, opening a new branch and signing a landmark deal with state-run China Development Bank to act as its agent across the region with a focus on Australia.
Mr Smith’s trip began by participating in the high-powered annual advisory panel to the Mayor of Chongqing, western China’s most up and coming area.
ANZ’s also opened its first rural branch in Liangping, part of the 32 million person strong Chongqing municipality. The branch is 170km from the main city and in the agricultural mountains.
Mr Smith said that the previous policy under his predecessor John McFarlane was very focused on the east coast, but the bank is now looking at China’s new growth areas in the west and the south.
What ANZ does in Greater China as well as in Taiwan and Hong Kong, all has to work together, Mr Smith, told The Australian newspaper.