It’s back to blogging after a month of seemingly endless overseas travel and house moving.

China‘s banks are increasingly active in the Middle East. But details are scarce. This interview of a senior official from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) offers a few useful scraps. The official, Yi Huiman, was interviewed on the fringes of an Abu Dhabi-China investment conference being held in Shanghai. He says, “In the 1990s, large numbers of Korean and Japanese companies entered China, and their banks followed them. At present, ICBC is committed to following Chinese companies that are ‘going abroad“. He also states that ICBC has made $800 million worth of loans in the UAE. The Abu Dhabi branch is near to obtaining a retail license and, when it does, it won‘t only service Chinese companies, but also the 200,000 Chinese in the UAE. The branch will provide project-finance, trade settlement and cash management services.