CBR, People's Bank of China sign agreement Thursday

The Central Bank of Russia
(CBR) and the People's Bank of China (PBC) have signed an agreement on
settlements and payments here on Thursday.
The document provides a legislative opportunity to make settlements
and payments for goods and services between Russian and Chinese regions
both in freely convertible currencies and in national currencies (roubles
and yuan) in accordance with the international practice and current
legislation that is in effect in the territory of each state.
Ma Delun, PBC Deputy Governor, told Itar-Tass, "This document is very
important for a further development of financial cooperation between our
two countries".
"The Agreement removes all barriers in bilateral trade between
Russian and Chinese commercial entities maintaining trade-and-economic
relations, and extends the geography of reciprocal settlements in the
national currencies from the border areas of Russia and China over to the
whole territories of the two countries," Ma Delun pointed out.
PBC Deputy Governor said the need to sign such an agreement was
brought about primarily by the requirements of the market which is in need
of an increasing amount of currency. "We hope that both the financial
segment of the economies of China and Russia and members of the business
communities will be able to appreciate this document, for they will be
able to choose whether they make settlements in a freely convertible
currency or use the national currency in mutual settlements to a greater
extent and more actively," Ma Delun emphasized.
CBR Deputy Chairman Viktor Melnikov said that for Russian banks this
Agreement is a substantial factor in the strengthening of their legal
positions in the work with Chinese banks, for the currency regulation
framework in China is shaped by the PBC."In this particular case, the PBC
gives the go-ahead to the Russian banks' opening accounts in the national
currency at Chinese financial institutions, to the transaction of
operations, and thereby gives greater scope to our bilateral
trade-and-economic contacts at the level of commercial entities".