Govt looking at ways to expand renminbi usage: Hui

Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, on Friday said the government would explore more ways in which the renminbi could be used to handle payments. This, he added, was a "natural" process to promote the use of the national currency, while serving as a way to hedge against exchange rate-related risks. On Wednesday, Chief Executive John Lee announced in his Policy Address that the government would further promote the use and globalisation of the yuan. Speaking to reporters, Hui said government had already been taking in renminbi via different channels such as the issuance of yuan-denominated bonds. Authorities were also pressing ahead with plans to allow residents to use renminbi to pay for stock stamp duties, and include RMB counters under the Southbound Stock Connect Scheme to encourage more renminbi transactions, he added. "So you see, in terms of the recipient side, the government has already been collecting, and will collect more of the renminbi via different scenarios. "And that's why we also need to explore more use cases to spend the renbminbi, so we'll not need to consider about issues related to exchange rates, such as the rate-matching issues," he said. Hui added the government would look into scenarios,...