Renminbi maintained its position as the largest cross-border payment currency between Guangxi and ASEAN in 2020, officials from the Nanning Central Sub-branch of the People's Bank of China (PBC) said on Feb 3.

Guangxi's cross-border RMB settlement amount reached 155.7 billion yuan ($24.04 billion) in 2020, accounting for 40.75 percent of overall domestic and foreign currency cross-border income and expenditure. The total settlement between Guangxi and ASEAN was 68.1 billion yuan, accounting for 60 percent of the Guangxi-ASEAN domestic and foreign currency cross-border income and expenditure.

Its cross-border RMB settlement in 2020 was the highest among the 12 provinces (autonomous regions) of West China and the nine border provinces (autonomous regions).

Guangxi, the only region of its kind in China that borders ASEAN countries both by land and sea, has been designated a frontier area for opening-up and cooperation with ASEAN. 

The region was listed as one of the second batch of China's demonstration areas for cross-border RMB settlement in 2010, and has since been facilitating settlement channels with ASEAN, pushing forward the direct trade between RMB and the currencies of ASEAN countries, as well as expanding the usage of RMB in bilateral trade investments. 

The China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park has received approval from PBC to carry out five financial innovation pilot projects, including convenient cross-border RMB two-way flow facilitation. By the end of 2020, it had handled 1.89 billion yuan of pilot business, which in turn offered great financial support for the construction of the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park and the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park.

Guangxi has taken the lead in China in establishing an information platform for border trade settlement at border ports, and has now started the second-phase development, further increasing the service efficiency of RMB settlement in border trade and benefiting 95,000 people in border areas.

In addition, banks in the China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone have handled a total of 26.87 billion yuan of cross-border RMB business in 2020.