Canada steps up efforts to become hub for yuan trade settlement

The Canadian province of British Columbia is eager to become a hub for yuan trade settlement and an investment hub for money managers from around the world wanting to invest in China.

During a visit to Hong Kong, Colin Hansen, the president and chief executive of the AdvantageBC International Business Centre and a former provincial deputy premier and finance minister, said only 1 per cent of trade finance between China and Canada was currently denominated in yuan, but that would grow along with bilateral trade and yuan-related investment.

Canada is targeting yuan business from companies across North America, offering them use of newly established yuan clearing bank facilities on the west coast in Vancouver and in the east in Toronto, the country's biggest city. Hansen said another focus was to attract foreign asset managers to set up offices to use its yuan clearing and settlement facilities.

AdvantageBC is a provincial-government-backed society that promotes British Columbia as a location for international business. Hansen was in Hong Kong after his twice-yearly tour of mainland cities including Beijing, Shenzhen and Xiamen to meet companies.

"We want Canada to be seen as a very friendly jurisdiction when it comes to encouraging the use of renminbi and encouraging companies to transit from US dollar settlement, which has been a tradition for North American companies, to yuan settlement," he said.

More than 70 per cent of the trade finance value between China and Canada is settled in Vancouver, a city where more than 10 per cent of the population is of Chinese origin.