On January 26, 2009 Vietnam local time, the Hanoi Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China ("ICBC") formally opens to the public for business in Hanoi, the capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Prior to this, the Hanoi Branch of ICBC obtained a Financial Services Operating Permit and a Business License, and became the first mainland Chinese bank approved by the Vietnamese government since 1995. Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Director of the General Office of the Vietnamese government, Dang Thanh Binh, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, Sun Guoxiang, Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam, Jiang Jianqing, ICBC's Chairman, and Wang Lili, ICBC's Vice President attended the opening ceremony.

Vietnam is one of the most important countries in the ASEAN. In recent years, trade between China and Vietnam has maintained an excellent development trend.  For six consecutive years China has been Vietnam's largest trading partner. In 2009, the volume of trade between the two countries exceeded US$20 billion. The two countries have also cooperated successfully in construction and contracting, and Vietnam has become China's second largest engineering contracting market in South-East Asia.  Meanwhile, the development of bilateral investment between China and Vietnam has also been extremely rapid.  By the end of 2009, China had invested close to US$3 billion in Vietnam.  The economic and trade cooperation between the two countries is entering a new stage of development, and is gradually creating scope for diverse cooperation on many levels and covering a broad area.  Even more importantly, with the formal establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone on January 1, 2010, the economic and trade relationship between China and other ASEAN countries, including Vietnam, has entered another new phase, and will see greater opportunities for development.

Vietnam's rapid economic development and the increasingly close economic, trade and investment relationship between China and Vietnam provide a good foundation for the development of Chinese commercial banks in Vietnam. After the opening of ICBC Hanoi Branch, ICBC will, based on its strong customer base, funds, networks, technologies and brand, actively support the construction of Vietnam's local infrastructure such as communications, energy, telecommunications, etc., provide excellent and express financial services to corporate and individual customers, strive to become a bridge and a hub for economic and financial exchange between China and Vietnam, and play the necessary role in serving economic and trade exchanges between China and Vietnam and promoting Vietnam's economic development.

ICBC's Chairman Jiang Jianqing stated at the opening ceremony that the Hanoi Branch of ICBC will continue to uphold the bank's business style of being law-abiding and honest, conducting stable and healthy operations, maintaining a good reputation and pursuing excellence, comply strictly with local regulatory rules, provide Vietnam's economy and society with powerful financial support and outstanding financial services, and strive to blend into local society to create an outstanding foreign-invested bank approved by the government, praised by its customers and trusted by the public.

ICBC is China's largest commercial bank, and has a strong client base, an advanced level of information technology and the advantage of diverse products, and is the leader in all of its main business areas.  Since listing simultaneously in Shanghai and Hong Kong in 2006, ICBC's operations, management and profitability have continued to improve rapidly, and the bank currently is the commercial bank that has the highest market value, highest profitability, largest number of customers and highest brand value in the world.  In recent years, with the trend of economic integration and financial globalization and following the huge demand for cross-boarder financial services generated by the outbound movement of Chinese enterprises, ICBC has been actively promoting an internationalized business strategy, accelerating the expansion of overseas networks, broadening its business areas, and striving to enhance its ability to deliver cross-boarder financial services.  By the end of 2009, ICBC had business offices spread over 20 countries and regions of the world, with a total of 162 branches, established agency relationships with 1,393 banks in 125 countries and regions, and formed a well-bedded, rationally positioned, multi-channel and operationally efficient global financial network services platform that covers international financial centers and the regions with which China has its main trading relationships.