The Bank of Thailand (BoT) is encouraging Thai operators to use China’s yuan currency for their trade and investment with China to cope with foreign exchange risks.
It also recommended Hong Kong as a major yuan market.
Opening the Hong Kong-Thailand Renminbi Business Forum that BoT and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority organized, Chantavarn Sucharitakul, BoT assistant governor for the Financial Markets Operations Group, said the yuan was playing more important roles and that Thai operators should use it as a tool to manage their foreign exchange risks.
She also said that Hong Kong was the biggest yuan market and provides a wide range of yuan-related services.
Vachira Arromdee, BoT’s senior director for the Financial Markets Department, said Thai operators rarely use yuan to pay for products and services as the proportion was less than 1 per cent.
However, she said that the use was likely to grow along with increasing trade between Thailand and China.
Vincent Lee, executive director of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, said it is a good time to promote the yuan because trade between Thailand and China is expanding steadily and many Chinese business operators have offices in Thailand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
He said that the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 would further boost the value of trade between Thailand and China and between ASEAN and China.
