Singapore 'looking to widen its yuan role'

The opening of the Monetary Authority of Singapore's first representative office in Asia in Beijing on Tuesday is being seen by the financial industry as a sign of Singapore's readiness to play a bigger role in the yuan's internationalization.

The development is also viewed by Chinese and Singaporean officials as a milestone in further strengthening bilateral financial cooperation.

The Beijing office is the authority's third overseas after London and New York.

"We look forward to taking full advantage of this milestone collaboration to deepen our financial and economic cooperation and take our bilateral relations to new heights," Tharman Shanmugaratnam, deputy prime minister of Singapore and minister for finance, said in Beijing.

Shanmugaratnam, who is also chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said financial cooperation has become an increasingly important pillar in the relationship between China and Singapore.

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, said the expanded footprint of the Singaporean monetary authority will not only bring better communication between the two central banks, but should also promote the business of commercial banks from both countries.

Shanmugaratnam said economic changes are taking place in China at a time when other Asian nations are "moving up the curve of development, and it will lead to growing connectivity between Asia and China, and new patterns of connectivity in goods and services."

China was Singapore's third-largest merchandise trading partner last year.

In services, China was Singapore's fifth-largest export destination, and Singapore was China's 13th-largest trading partner in 2012. Singapore was also the third-largest source of foreign direct investment into China last year, after Hong Kong and Japan.