The story appears on

Page A2

May 20, 2012

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Business » Economy

Global yuan boost for city ambitions

THE acceleration of the yuan's globalization provides an excellent opportunity for Shanghai to build itself into an international financial center, the head of the city's financial services office said yesterday.

"With the globalization of the yuan, more overseas businesses are willing to accept it as a settlement currency," said Fang Xinghai, director of the Shanghai Financial Services Office and deputy Party secretary of the city's financial work committee, speaking at the sidelines of the plenary session of the 10th Chinese Communist Party Shanghai Congress.

"It is an exceptional opportunity for Shanghai to strengthen its position in finance and can help the city move closer toward becoming an international financial center."

He expected the pace of the yuan's globalization will increase in the next five years, enhancing the competitiveness of the country's financial market, as well as financial institutions, and benefiting Shanghai.

"Quite a number of cities treated as international financial centers are growing with the globalization of their currencies," Fang said.

China has continued to expand the coverage of places which can use the yuan in trade settlements.

Hong Kong, a leading offshore market for the Chinese currency, reported its yuan settlement surging to 1.9 trillion yuan (US$301 billion) last year.

London has also shown confidence in the currency, with the yuan-denominated bond issued last month by the HSBC Holdings being heavily oversubscribed.

In addition, the central bank raised the trading band of the yuan's exchange rate last month, a move viewed as important in the globalization of the currency.

Fang was the leading writer of a proposal delivered to the congress which put forward several suggestions on attracting senior financial professionals to the city.

"Shanghai needs to beef up efforts in attracting financial professionals," Fang said. "We suggested in the proposal that the city should design longer-term stimulus packages to attract and retain professionals."

This was the first time the congress encouraged delegates write proposals at the session. Other topics of proposals included strengthening the Party's leadership.




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend