Thai analyst sees rising roles of China's yuan in world trade

BANGKOK, December 2 (TNA) - A well-known Thai academic and analyst foresees that China's renminbi or yuan should play greater roles in world trade, after the US-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) has included the Chinese currency in its international reserve basket, known as the Special Drawing Right (SDR), effective from October 2016. The Thai academic and analyst, Sompop Manarungsan, President of the Bangkok-based Panyapiwat Institute of Management, pointed out on Wednesday that, following IMF's decision, China's renminbi or yuan already has its status upgraded to the same level of the US dollar, the British pound sterling, the euro and the Japanese yen, which have earlier been in the international reserve-currency basket. Sompop viewed that yuan has been quickly included in SDR because China has become the world's biggest exporter with its total export value of 2.2 trillion US dollars now. Besides, China has allowed market mechanisms govern its currency, let foreigners to invest more in Chinese bonds and increasingly liberalised its interest rates. Sompop told journalists that China is also reviving its Silk Road to 64 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa, whose overall population of 4.4 billion account for 30 per cent of the world's population and the total value of China's trade with the countries amounts to 1.12 billion US dollars annually. According to the senior academic and analyst, transport networking for the Silk Road revival should raise the trade value and railway tracks from China's southern Yunnan Province to Thailand's northeastern Nong Khai Province and Map Ta Phut of eastern Rayong Province, through Laos, are part of the regional transport networks. (TNA)