BEIJING - Bank of China (BOC), one of four biggest state-owned com­mercial banks, has opened its first branch in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, which will further expand the use of the yuan in fi­nance and trade. According to an announcement pub­lished by the BOC, the bank opened the Riyadh branch, with BOC President Liu Jin, Chinese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chen Weiqing, Governor of the Saudi Cen­tral Bank Ayman Al-Sayari and other officials attend­ing the opening ceremony. Liu said that the establish­ment of a branch in Saudi Arabia to serve trade and investment exchanges was a solid initiative to promote the high-quality construc­tion of the Belt and Road Initiative with the power of finance, Global Times re­ported on Thursday.