City seeks to boost use of the yuan globally

THE value of Shanghai's cross-border yuan settlement in 2011 alone more than quadrupled the previous total and the city aims to penetrate further in this sector as part of its goal to becoming a global financial center by 2020, according to a municipal meeting yesterday.

Last year, the cross-border yuan settlement in the city topped 330 billion yuan (US$ 52.4 billion), or 16 percent of the country's total.

The amount was more than four times the 74.3 billion yuan accumulated from July 2009 when Shanghai launched the business through the end of 2010, according to a statement released after a closed-door meeting, presided by Vice Mayor Tu Guangshao and attended by major municipal financial regulators and institutions in the city.

"The reach of the yuan settlement in Shanghai has extended to the world," said Tu, who is in charge of supervising the financial industry. "Shanghai will continue to promote cross-border use of the yuan and accelerate the pace of internationalization."

China's biggest yuan international fund at 50 billion yuan was established last week in Shanghai to encourage overseas investment.

A central government blueprint released last month envisaged Shanghai to become a global center for the trading, pricing and clearing of the yuan by 2015, with its financial market transactions almost tripling to 1,000 trillion yuan.

Tu also disclosed that preparations have been made to launch the long awaited cross-border exchange-traded-fund on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. He added that overseas firms will be allowed to sell yuan-denominated shares and bonds on the mainland.

Measures are also being studied to open up trading of treasury bond futures, silver futures and crude oil futures to investors, Tu said.

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