sydney june 2 reuters  bank of china 601988ss chairman ge haijiao has travelled to papua new guinea png as the worlds fourthlargest bank seeks an operating licence in the pacific islands nation which is seeking to boost china trade while expanding us defence ties us secretary of state antony blinken last week travelled to png to sign a defence cooperation agreement  prompting some domestic political criticism and student protests amid concern the island nation would become embroiled in strategic competition between washington and beijing china a major infrastructure lender and creditor in the pacific islands struck a security pact with pngs neighbour solomon islands last year png prime minister james marape in a speech ge attended on thursday evening said his country was a place of friends to all and enemies to none  we have our values which mean we will not compromise chinese companies chinese government and chinese people have been important partners for our progress in the last 48 years marape said highlighting growing trade with beijing we hope this bank is able to not just entrench but facilitate ease of transaction between two peoples two countries he added png a resourcerich but largely undeveloped nation of 10 million sits a few kilometres north of australias torres strait png has four licenced banks although two of these are australianowned and have sought to reduce operations in the country marape said 60 to 70 of the population did not use banking and most small to medium enterprises were yet to migrate to the formal economy stateowned bank of china has applied for a commercial operating licence that is still being processed marape has previously said png could become the banks regional headquarters for the pacific islands china had grown from a rural economy to the secondlargest on earth he said urging bank of china to fill gaps in the png banking market bank of china said in a statement it was the first branch of a chinese bank to open in the pacific island country and it would play a role in local economic revitalisation establishing a png representative office is a vivid interpretation of the bank of chinas joint construction of the belt and road initiative with financial strength and highquality service it said referring to a policy launched by chinese president xi jinping in 2013 the banks presence in png would deepen bilateral cooperation in rmb renmimbi settlement and add new impetus to the promotion of crossborder trade and investment between the two countries it added china has been promoting the use of yuan  or renminbi to settle crossborder trades as part of efforts to internationalise the use of its currency