In 2008, ICBC purchased 20% of the shares of Standard Bank of South Africa, hence becoming the single largest shareholder of this largest bank of Africa. Since then, the two banks have seen their cooperation continuing to strengthen, and has obtained much fruitful results. In 2008, ICBC gained from Standard Bank cash dividends of 1,213 million rand and stock dividends worth 589 million rand. It is estimated that the annul investment rate of return that ICBC acquires from Standard Bank is about 7.7%, far above that of investment in foreign bonds. By the end of March 2009, the two banks have carried out a total of 65 collaborative programs, among which 9 are completed, including the financing project as co-lead with China Oilfield Services Limited to purchase Awilco Company, and the financing project for the commodity export of Premium Corporation and Lianyi International.

Recently, the consortium established by ICBC and Standard Bank was formally appointed by the Government of Botswana as the exclusive bank of syndicated loan to take charge of the 825 million U.S. dollars of export buyer's credit and 140 million U.S. dollars of bridge loan of the Botswana Morupule B Coal Power Plant Project. China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation and World Bank will provide insurance and guarantee respectively for the export buyer's credit. As the general contractor of the power generation section of the project, China Electrical Equipment Corporation will export electrical equipment worth 970 million U.S. dollars. The project is so far the largest power projects in Africa.

Botswana is one of Africa's most economically developed country, and the total investment of its Morupule B Coal Power Plant Project amounts to 1.6 billion U.S. dollars, including the construction of 4x15 million watt of coal-fired generating units and 400 kilovolt of transmission lines. Therefore, the project attracted much global attention in the industry, while the competition for the project's loan syndication arrangement was also heated. In order to win the project, ICBC and Standard Bank, through close cooperation, made full use of their leading positions in the Chinese and African markets, and submitted to the project owner a comprehensive financing solution that covered all the financial services the project was in need of. As a consequence, the solution was highly recognized by the project owner, and ultimately, the two banks won the bid over the other renowned international banks to exclusively take the responsibility of the project's financial arrangement. The success of this project is of fundamental importance for enhancing the reputation of China's power enterprises and ICBC in the international market, particularly in the African market.

ICBC's official responsible for the project introduced that, the reason for ICBC to choose Standard Bank to co-build a consortium not only lies in that Standard Bank is the largest commercial bank in Africa, but also owes to the close strategic relation between the two banks. ICBC holds 305 million shares of Standard Bank's common stock, and is the latter's single largest shareholder. Since 2008, the two banks has conducted all-dimensional business cooperation in the fields of resource banking, corporate banking, investment banking, global financial market and investment fund based on their strategic cooperation agreement. Through working with Standard Bank, ICBC has not only intensified its strength in product line innovation, but has also actively introduced technologies and experience of Standard Bank to enrich its financial product line as well as offshore resource banking business. The current success of the two banks' consortium strongly symbolizes their significant achievement of their strategic collaboration.

The official continues to point out that, ICBC's professionalism and strength in export credit also served as an indispensible factor for its consortium with Standard Bank to win the bid. In recent years, ICBC has been vigorously providing financial support to Chinese enterprises' "going out" strategy through the export credit business, and has been actively participating in major international competition in export credit projects. Meanwhile, it has been proactively competing with big international banks for the lead bank status in export credit projects, and has achieved significant results. By the end of the first quarter of 2009, ICBC's balance of export credit financing is close to 1.1 billion U.S. dollars, which is among the top of all the Chinese-funded commercial banks. Meanwhile, ICBC's export credit projects have continuously won a number of awards voted by famous international media. For instance, in 2006, the Brazilian Manaus Export Credit Project with ICBC as the lead bank won three awards by authoritative international magazines such as Trade Finance and Trade Finance and Forfeiting Observer; in 2007, the Vietnamese FICO Concrete Export Credit Project with ICBC as the lead bank won the "Best Export Credit Project Award" by Trade Finance and Trade Finance and Forfeiting Observer respectively; and in 2008, the Indonesian Indramayu Power Plant Project with ICBC as the lead bank won two awards by Trade Finance and International Trade Observer.