Renminbi gets official notice as trade currency
May 12, 2014 14:24:36 GMT -5
Post by PrisonerOfHope on May 12, 2014 14:24:36 GMT -5
Renminbi gets official notice as trade currency in China's border nations
Liang Shihhuang & Staff Reporter 2014-05-11 11:43 (GMT+8)
Renminbi banknotes. (Photo/ Chen Ssu-hao)
Thanks to intense promotional efforts by the Chinese government in recent years, the renminbi has become an increasingly common "hard currency" in the frontier cities of neighboring nations, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar (Burma). The trend has impacted local underground banking activities, reports our sister newspaper Want Daily.
In Mong Cai, Vietnam, a city thriving from cross-border trade with China, the renminbi is far more popular than the US dollar. As a result, the Vietnamese government has acknowledged the renminbi as a legitimate currency for circulation in the area and is developing the city into a special economic zone focusing on trade with China.
The prominent status of the currency in Mong Cai and other frontier cities of neighboring nations results mainly from the efforts of the Chinese government in pushing free circulation of the currency in those areas. China aims to make the currency a dominant presence amongst ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members and South Asia.
Renminbi is catching on among ASEAN members and has increasingly become a hard currency in Cambodia and Laos. Its popularity soared after the National Bank of Cambodia approved ICBC's Phnom Penh branch as the clearance bank for renminbi in late March.
The currency's conversion has been increasingly carried out via official channels, a trend which is undermining the dominance of underground banks, also known as "street vendor banks." Such stands are ubiquitous and have long been the main channel for renminbi conversion, so much so that that influenced the daily local exchange rates.
The street banks have thrived on a complete lack of a financial system in the Southeast Asian nations, which has led to huge cash demand in order to facilitate thriving trading activities in the border areas.
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