The Union Bank of India, one of the largest state-owned banks in India, inaugurated its first full-fledged branch in Hong Kong on Friday, which the company said was due to growing trade between China and India.

"Sino-Indian relations have been strengthened in recent years. To finance the rapidly growing trade between the two economies, Hong Kong is the natural choice," M. V. Nair, the bank's chairman and managing director, said at the ceremony.

Hong Kong has state-of-the-art infrastructure and well-developed financial market with the presence of the world's leading players, he added.

Pawan Kumar Bansal, the Indian minister of state for finance, said the move was a major step forward for the bank to expand its global presence.

Nair said the bank was also exploring the possibility of opening more branches in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Oceania.

Charles Ng, acting director-general of investment promotion at Invest Hong Kong, the investment promotion arm of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, welcomed the opening of Union Bank of India's new branch in the southern Chinese city.

"It is a great vote of confidence in our role as a global financial center, which recently has been further strengthened by some leading financial institutions' decision to base global business and functions in Hong Kong," he said.

Union Bank of India was established in 1919. As of March, it had a total business of 44.8 billion U.S. dollars and an asset base of 30.9 billion U.S. dollars.