In September, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu unveiled the city’s first five-year plan along with his policy address, highlighting Hong Kong’s strategic role in promoting the greater use of the yuan outside mainland China as a key priority.
In the first of a four-part series on the internationalisation of the yuan, Lam Ka-sing and Denise Tsang examine Hong Kong’s efforts as an international financial centre to reform its market infrastructure, including building a larger offshore renminbi ecosystem.
As Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart, Donald Trump, met in Washington for a historic summit last month, Hong Kong was preparing for a longer-term move: reducing reliance on the US dollar and boosting the yuan’s global use.