As China continues on its path towards greater economic liberalisation, new opportunities and benefits for global trade in China’s renminbi (RMB) are arising, according to HSBC’s head of RMB Business Development, Europe, Global Banking and Markets Rongrong Huo.

She was speaking at an HSBC Malta business breakfast on the theme of RMB: Supporting Rising Ambition.

Ms Huo is responsible for shaping the bank’s RMB strategy and driving client execution across HSBC’s global capital financing.

“By internationalising RMB through offshore financial markets, China is achieving new levels of openness and transparency while continuing to relax rules over its home market and making further actions towards RMB full convertibility under capital account.

“China is not just the global trade dominator. It is now the third biggest global investor behind the US and Japan, with outbound investment growing at an average of 35 per cent between 2005 and 2012. By 2017, China is set to become a net investor in the world, after the US. The world stands to gain from Chinese capital in the coming years,” she explained.

She also emphasised the importance of China’s globalisation and the rise of the RMB concept, which might be at its early stages for countries like Malta in terms of positioning themselves so as to capture two way strategic flows via trade and investment.

HSBC Bank Malta was the first bank in Malta to offer the facility of trading with China through direct trade settlements in RMB.

HSBC Malta chief executive officer Mark Watkinson said: “There can be no doubting the rising importance of Chinese currency in the global economy. In 2009, RMB was a little known currency but in the following four years, it grew to account for 8 per cent of world trade and its growth continues.”

Benefits for corporates of using RMB may include improving working capital, simplifying processes and mitigating payment risks.