Standard Bank SARL Mozambique, the Mozambican arm of Standard Bank Group Ltd of South Africa, has opened an agency for Sino-African trade, A Verdade reports.

The Mozambican newspaper says the agency will be dependent on the partnership of Standard Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which will issue letters of credit.

The report quotes a Standard Bank manager, Tanuja Viriato, as saying on the sidelines of the formal opening of the agency that the aim is first to facilitate the import of Chinese goods and services into Mozambique and next to facilitate the export of Mozambican goods and services to China.

A Chinese diplomat in Maputo, Liu Xiaoguang, forecasts that the value of Sino-Mozambican trade will reach U$2 billion this year, A Verdade says.