The internationalization of RMB is a long-term strategy. As a payment and settlement currency, RMB has been accepted by many countries. In fact, RMB has become a hard currency in many countries or regions in Southeast Asia. In recent years, the circulation and use of RMB in neighboring countries can be divided into three types:

First, in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and other countries. The circulation and use of RMB is mainly developed with the rise of tourism. China has a large number of tourists visiting these countries every year. As a result, there are more and more shopping stores in these countries that can buy goods in RMB, and exchange shops and banks that can exchange RMB for their own currencies have also begun to appear. Well-known shopping malls, hotels and guesthouses in Korea announce the exchange rates between RMB and local currency, and between local currency and US dollar every day.

Renminbi, like local currency and US dollar, can be used for payment and settlement. Almost all commercial banks in South Korea handle the exchange business between RMB and Korean won, RMB and US dollar, and can also exchange RMB into all hard currencies such as euro, Japanese yen and British pound at any time. In particular, on February 29th, 2004,65438, China UnionPay announced that it would officially open the acceptance business of UnionPay cards in Korea, Thailand and Singapore from June 29th, 2005. So that cardholders can use UnionPay cards to shop in Korea, Thailand and Singapore, and they can also withdraw a certain amount of domestic currency from ATMs in these countries. On June 5438+February, 2005, China UnionPay card ATM acceptance service was first opened in Germany, France, Spain, Belgium and Luxemburg. All this shows that the international status of RMB has been further improved and the internationalization of RMB has been further promoted.

Second, in China-Vietnam, China-Russia, China-DPRK, China-Myanmar, China-Laos and other border areas. The circulation and use of RMB is mainly accompanied by the development of border trade, border trade, folk trade and border tourism. As the settlement currency and payment currency, RMB has been widely used in these countries and can be freely exchanged with the currencies of these countries. To a certain extent, RMB has become a de facto regional currency. In the fair trade market of Luo Jin-Xianfeng Free Economic and Trade Zone in North Korea, local stall owners are used to pricing and settlement in RMB, whether they sell goods from China or local products from North Korea. In almost all the border cities of North Korea, even nationwide, RMB has become one of the currencies for people to settle payment for goods, trade commodities and serve as hard currency reserves. In Vietnam, Russia, North Korea, Myanmar and other countries, most tourism-related industries, departments and commodity retail industries accept RMB. And announce the exchange rate between RMB and domestic currency on a daily basis. With the further expansion of economic and trade exchanges between China and neighboring countries and regions and the continuous development of tourism, the circulation and use of RMB are more and more extensive, the scope of RMB regionalization will be further expanded, and the status of regional currency will be consolidated day by day, thus promoting the internationalization of RMB.

Third, Hong Kong and Macau in China. Due to the close economic ties between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao, the number of people visiting relatives and traveling with each other is increasing every year, and the exchange and use of RMB is quite common. According to the data, there are more than 100 currency exchange shops and nearly 20 banks in Hong Kong that offer RMB exchange services. Many hotels, shopping malls, especially tourist shopping spots, quote the exchange rate of RMB and Hong Kong dollars and accept RMB directly. Since Hong Kong dollars can be converted into US dollars at any time, in fact, RMB can also be converted into US dollars at any time through the intermediary of Hong Kong dollars. According to experts' estimation, the RMB circulating in Hong Kong recently has reached more than 70 billion yuan, which is the currency in circulation after the Hong Kong dollar.

According to the investigation and statistics of researchers of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the annual cross-border flow of RMB is about 654.38 billion yuan, and the overseas stock is about 20 billion yuan. The RMB supply in China (M2) is about 2000 billion yuan, which means that the overseas RMB is about 1% of the total RMB. Therefore, the RMB has been widely accepted by China's neighboring countries or regions to a certain extent, and the internationalization of RMB is in the stage of gradual development.