The city plans to establish “a huge, onshore market for the yuan within three years, directly competing with Hong Kong’s own ambitions for offshore trading in the mainland currency,” the South China Morning Post is reporting today, citing a joint announcement by China’s top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and the Shanghai government.
China has set an onshore trading target of 1,000trn yuan ($158trn, £100trn) by 2015, the SCMP said, although it noted that “Hong Kong-based analysts said the city’s markets should comfortably meet the challenge from Shanghai”.
Hong Kong economists were also sceptical, the SCMP noted, quoting them as saying the plan “paid lip service to bolster the investment community’s confidence in a Shanghai’s long-term effort to transform itself into a global financial centre”.
Earlier this month, the UK Chancellor George Osborne announced plans to make the City of London a major international renminbi trading centre. The Chancellor revealed the plans when in Hong Kong on the first of a three-day trip to Asia which also took in Beijing and Tokyo.
