Shanghai Aims To Become Global RMB Product Center by 2015

 China plans to make Shanghai, the country's financial hub, a global center for innovation, transaction, pricing and clearing of RMB-denominated financial products by 2015, the country's top economic planner said Monday.

The plan will be part of China's bid to build Shanghai into an international financial center by 2020 amid a shifting global financial landscape, with China's economic weight and its currency taking a more prominent position on the world stage.

The 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015) will be "a period of strategic opportunities" for the construction of the international financial center, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement.

The government aims to increase the total transaction value of all financial markets in Shanghai, barring foreign exchange markets, to around 1 quadrillion yuan (158.5 trillion U.S. dollars) by 2015, the statement said, quoting an unnamed Shanghai government official.

That will be more than double the transaction value of 2010, which stood at 386.2 trillion yuan, up 10 times from 2005, according to the statement.

By 2015, direct financing will account for around 22 percent of the social financing scale in Shanghai, while assets under management will reach 30 trillion yuan, the official said.

The scale of overseas investment in Shanghai's financial markets will be markedly expanded by that time, with major stock indices and commodities futures prices of those markets having a greater global influence, he said.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate and the RMB central parity rate will become major benchmarks for domestic and foreign RMB asset pricing and transactions.

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