South Korea's second largest lender, Woori Bank, will open a new branch in Chongqing's Liangjiang New Area in May to become the first Korean bank in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality.

According Worri Bank, its Chongqing branch began trial operations in February by providing financial services.

As one of the biggest commercial banks in South Korea, Woori Bank entered the Chinese market as early as 2007 and has now opened 17 branches in China altogether.

Kim Beom-seok, president of Worri Bank Chongqing Branch, explained that the reason for choosing Chongqing as the location of its new branch is that it is the core city of China's development in its western regions. Kim believes that more enterprises will enter Chongqing with the development of its economy, while the demand of financial services will also increase.

Kim also hoped that Woori Bank could strengthen the cooperation with local governments to better serve local enterprises and help pare enterprises' funding costs.

Aside from regular businesses, Worri has the unique advantage of offering customers one-to-one financial services.

Statistics show that Korea has already become the fifth largest investor in Chongqing. According to the Chongqing Administration of Customs, the total volume of foreign trade between Chongqing and South Korea reached 46.05 billion yuan ($7.43 billion) in 2014, seeing a year-on-year increase of 290 percent. As a close trading partner of South Korea, Liangjiang makes up almost 80 percent of the total foreign trade with South Korea in Chongqing municipality.

China and South Korea are in joint cooperation to construct the China and South Korea Industrial Park within the Liangjiang New Area. When completed, it will be the only industrial park in China's inland area.

Edited by Jacob Hooson