If successful, the move will help Beijing pressurize the International Monetary Fund to recognize the Yuan as one of the basket of currencies supporting its special drawing rights.
"It's currently underway," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Jin Qi, assistant to the governor of the People's Bank of China, as saying on the sidelines of the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in the southwestern city of Nanning. She did not give details of the plan.
Several developing countries in Africa and some in Asia like Pakistan have agreed to deal in the Chinese currency for the purpose of two-way trade. China is also giving some of its aid to the poor countries in its own currency. This is seen in some quarters as a move to force aid recipients to use the money for purchasing Chinese goods."We should speed up the work of signing and improving bilateral agreements on local currency-denominated settlement," Jin said at the Summit. She also tried to persuade the participating officials to allow trading of Yuan and currencies of ASEAN countries on interbank foreign-exchange markets in the north and South East Asian region.
The Export-Import Bank of China is also working on the Yuan plan using its capability to finance infrastructure and "livelihood-related" projects in ASEAN member countries, Sun Ping, assistant president of the Export-Import Bank of China, said at the conference.
"The bank will also make more efforts to provide financial support and services to promote bilateral economic cooperation," Sun said. It has sponsored a equity fund, which is being utilized by the China-ASEAN Fund on Investment Cooperation.
This is besides Chinese loan assistance for infrastructure projects in ASEAN countries, which has reached $12 billion in recent years.
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