Yiwu to introduce personal cross-border yuan trade settlement

Updated: 2013-05-17 17:43

(chinadaily.com.cn)

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A pilot scheme has been established in Yiwu City, Zhejiang province, for promoting personal cross-border RMB settlement, Shanghai Securities News reported.

A mobilization meeting will be held to further expand this scheme nationwide at the end of May.

At the same time there is no restriction on the amount of RMB settlements in this pilot scheme for individuals and small businesses.

In early May, Guo Jianwei, deputy director-general at the monetary policy department of the People's Bank of China, said that they were focusing on studying detailed rules and measures for individual cross-border RMB settlement and they hope to expand the Yiwu pilot scheme throughout the whole country.

For general trades in individual service, such as travel and overseas studies, the bank can simplify procedures if the single amount of each transaction is less than 500,000 yuan. The premise behind this is that risk management should be taken into account, according to a report named Temporary Provision for Governing Individual Cross-border RMB Settlement in Zhejiang province.

Domestic residents are only allowed to exchange the equivalent of $50,000 in foreign currency per year, according to Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Measures for the Administration of Individual Foreign Exchange issued by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

However, there is no restriction on the amount of foreign exchange for self-employed businessmen in Yiwu who have the ability to engage in credible and legal trade, according to a local investment insider.

This pilot plan has not yet been expanded to the whole country and some banks even have not announced this information to the public.

At the end of 2012 the People's Bank of China permitted the establishment of a pilot scheme in Yiwu for two reasons: "small commodities" and "international trade". As the country's largest wholesale market and distribution center of small commodities, Yiwu was chosen to highlight the importance of reform through innovative financial trade development. A great deal of self-employed businessmen in Yiwiu sell Chinese manufactures for export, which makes Yiwu become an international trade hub in China.

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