A new banking settlements system called CHANCES, dealing exclusively in
the Chinese currency renminbi (RMB), aims to make trade between China and the
ASEAN countries easier and less expensive.
Owned and operated by the
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the CHANCES system stands for
China ASEAN Clearing Electronic System and was introduced yesterday at Hotel
InterContinental.
It intends to make trade in RMB
easier between China and all the ASEAN countries.
At a press conference yesterday
at Hotel InterContinental, ICBC joined Cambodia’s Union Commercial Bank in a
Chinese language event to describe the system, which was developed in-house by
ICBC.
On hand were ICBC’s Head of
International Trade Processing Center Yuan Qin Long along with Deputy Head of
Guangxi Regional Headquarters Xu Guibei as well as Yum Sui Sang of the Union
Commercial Bank and other officials and key players in Phnom Penh’s Chinese
community.
While ICBC has its own branch
office in Phnom Penh on Norodom Boulevard, the Union Commercial Bank has a
correspondent relationship with ICBC, enabling its customers to also use the
CHANCES system, many of whom are garment factories and trading houses with
needs to both send and receive RMB to and from China.
The global SWIFT system of wire
transfers, which stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial
Telecommunication, uses standard Business Identifier Codes approved by the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
ICBC’s CHANCES system intends to
enable RMB transfers between China and all the ASEAN countries for lower rates
than conventional US dollar wire settlements. Many Cambodia-based banks charge
.020 per cent of the amount of an international transfer using the SWIFT code
system, often with a minimum charge of $20 to $30.
It remained unclear how much
lower priced or how much speedier ICBC’s Chance RMB system would be at
yesterday’s event.
UCB’s CEO Yum Sui Sang said that
while most Cambodians didn’t use RMB now, he believed the use of the Chinese
currency will grow in the future.
“When we look forward, the use of
RMB will be more and more. I put my focus on 2015. More and more companies in
the ASEAN area will be doing business with China by 2015. Now Cambodia is using
the US dollar, but in future the RMB will increase,” Yum said.
“I already have some customers
that are making payments to China for machinery and equipment and they make
remittance in RMB. The RMB eventually will be a strong currency.”
ICBC’s Deputy Head of Guangxi
Regional Headquarters, Xu Guibei, said the purpose of yesterday’s event was to
discuss how to facilitate RMB cross border settlement trading since the
establishment of ICBC’s ASEAN clearing centre.
“The main advantages of our
CHANCES system is high efficiency, security and price performance,” she said.
“We can provide a better financial service for the Cambodian banks and the
Cambodian import and export enterprises with the CHANCES system.”
Xu said ASEAN currencies
quotations would also be provided, with only the Vietnamese dong now available
and other currencies coming soon.
“If we do the settlement or the
clearing business by RMB, it can reduce the exchange cost of the currency
conversion. This is the advantage we have.”
Head of ICBC’s International
Trade Processing Center Yuan Qin Long said Cambodia was very important to ICBC.
“Our main target in business is
the traders who have the connections with China and also the enterprises of
Chinese people in Cambodia.”
Yuan said ICBC was taking
Cambodia more seriously than other ASEAN countries because of the open market
and profit potential.
“Compared to other ASEAN
countries, we are more serious about Cambodia because we think we can earn much
profit from this market and because we have a very good friendship between
China and the Cambodian people.”
Xu said it was her first visit to
Cambodia and she expressed her condolences about the loss of King Father
Norodom Sihanouk.
“Yesterday when we arrived here
we saw there were a lot of pictures of King Father.
“He was the best of friend and
the old friend of Chinese people, and he knew there was a great friendship
between China and Cambodia,” she said.
“We want to pay our respect to
the King Father and give our deepest condolences.”
Xu said Cambodia needed to be
recognised for the good work during the past decades of maintaining the
stability of the currency.
“The best thing they have done is
to maintain the stability of the currency since the war, and that led to the
Cambodian people’s living standards not being negatively affected by currency.”
Stuart Alan Becker
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. Since we are currently changing the platform of www.yourvietnamexpert.com, you may contact us at: sbc.pte@gmail.com, provisionally. Many thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment