The development of supply chain finance is entering a new stage featuring online operation and digitization, which will support the real economy more effectively, experts said at a forum.

"With the advance of technologies, the supply chain finance is now ushering in a new development stage featuring digitization and also receiving policy support," said Hu Yuefei, president of Ping An Bank, at the 2022 Supply Chain Finance Conference on Tuesday. "And we would like to build a more open and orderly industrial ecology with other players to better serve small and medium enterprises."

The digital economy has become a new engine to promote the high-quality development of China's economy. Li Yue, director of Corporate Business and president of Transaction Banking Division of Ping An Bank, said the bank will utilize the four advantages of account, data, transaction, and openness to support the growth of upstream and downstream businesses in the supply chain as well as the digital upgrading of the industry chain.

As one of the early banks in China to propose and practice supply chain finance, Ping An Bank has committed to maximizing the value of supply chain finance through the development of new financial technologies. By the end of June this year, the "Nebula IoT Plan" project it proposed in June had launched over 20 innovation projects across six industrial sectors, serving over 18,000 customers, connecting to over 12.5 million IoT terminals, and supporting the real economy with total financing of over 460 billion yuan ($67.6 billion).

In addition to solving the industry's general finance issues, numerous parties are working to improve the supply chain product service system, increase support for core enterprises' upstream and downstream supply chains, and realize the industry chain's strengthening and supplementing with digital innovation.

Jin Siying contributed to this story