Depth report

　　

Nanning, China, December 30 (Reporter Huang Yanmei) The reporter learned from the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region branch of the People's Bank of China on the 29th that the "Report on the use of RMB in ASEAN Countries in 2023" compiled by the Guangxi Finance Society was recently released in Nanning, Guangxi. The report pointed out that the ASEAN region has accelerated the formation of a new pattern of local currency use dominated by the renminbi and the currencies of ASEAN countries.

The Report on the Use of RMB in ASEAN Countries in 2023 was compiled by Guangxi Finance Association and published by China Finance Press. The report covers the use of RMB in ASEAN countries, China-Asean monetary cooperation, the RMB offshore market in Singapore, the use of infrastructure in ASEAN countries, the use of RMB in ASEAN countries, the use of RMB in ASEAN countries, the situation and trend of China-Asean economic and financial cooperation.

The report pointed out that with the help of opportunities such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), China and ASEAN will give full play to their industrial complementarities, rationally allocate various production factors, deeply integrate industrial and supply chains, and show broad prospects for cooperation, which will effectively promote the use of RMB in the ASEAN region.

China-asean consensus on local currency cooperation deepens. By the end of 2022, China had signed bilateral local currency settlement agreements with Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and Laos, and the amount of bilateral local currency swap agreements between China and ASEAN exceeded 800 billion yuan (RMB). The economic integration between China and ASEAN has become an important endogenous driving force for the cross-border use of RMB. In 2022, the cross-border RMB receipts and payments of current account and direct investment between China and ASEAN will increase by 60.7% and 13.4% respectively year-on-year.

At present, the cross-border RMB clearing network in the ASEAN region has begun to take shape. Steady progress has been made in the establishment of RMB clearing banks in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, and the second-generation system for cross-border RMB receipt and payment information management has been officially put into operation. Financial technology has injected new momentum into the cross-border use of RMB, and the digital RMB APP and the multilateral Central Bank digital currency Bridge project have promoted new progress in the exploration of central bank digital currency.

Guangxi and ASEAN are adjacent to each other by land and sea, with the unique location advantage of "one bay linking eleven countries". In recent years, Guangxi has actively built a financial open door for ASEAN, and the cross-border RMB settlement volume has long ranked first in China's 9 border provinces and 12 western provinces and regions, of which the settlement volume with ASEAN countries accounts for more than 60%, ranking first in the internationalization of RMB business.

According to Su Jianhua, vice president of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region branch of the Bank of China, the bank has actively promoted cross-border RMB settlement to promote trade and investment facilitation. By the end of November 2023, the bank had provided RMB 56.906 billion yuan in cross-border settlement facilitation for high-quality enterprises in Guangxi. In recent years, the bank has listed the exchange rate of RMB against eight national currencies such as Thai Baht, Vietnamese Dong and Cambodian riel, becoming the domestic bank with the largest number of currencies for exchange among the currencies of ASEAN countries, and promoting the local currency settlement of trade between China and ASEAN.

Chen Jinxiang, President of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Branch of the People's Bank of China, Director of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Branch of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and president of the Guangxi Finance Society, said that in the future, with the deepening of China-Asean trade exchanges and the deep integration of industrial chain and supply chain, it will consolidate the foundation for the use of bilateral local currencies, expand the scope of use of bilateral local currencies, and have broad prospects for local currency settlement cooperation. The use of RMB in the ASEAN region will usher in new opportunities.