Today Hong Kong Financial Secretary Mr John Tsang and I are pleased to announce a new high-level dialogue between senior business leaders from Australia and Hong Kong on RMB trade and investment.
This high-level dialogue will be private sector led, establishing an important vehicle for deepening this valuable market and building deeper trade links between our two economies.
It will be facilitated by the Australian Treasury, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
The dialogue will bring together senior banking and other business leaders from Australia and Hong Kong to maximise the significant opportunities flowing from the wider use of the RMB in trade and investment in our region.
This important initiative will foster closer collaboration between our two economies on the potential to broaden RMB trade settlement, particularly in Australia's key commodity exports. It will also support the development of new RMB-denominated financing and investment products and closer RMB banking and financial links.
The dialogue will start in Sydney next year, continuing in Hong Kong in 2014, and will be private-sector driven with representatives from the banking sector and firms participating in cross-border trade and investment.
Today's announcement is another example of the strong relationship across our two economies and our commitment to make the most of the opportunities in our region in the coming Asian Century.
It builds on substantial steps already taken to support internationalisation of the RMB, such as the announcement in March this year of a RMB 200 billion (AU$30 billion) bilateral currency swap between the Reserve Bank of Australia and the People's Bank of China.