The venue for the annual conference of the Financial Street Forum 2022 in Beijing on November 22, 2022 Photo: Li Qiaoyi/GT

Overseas business executives and experts discussed the rising trend of the yuan's internationalization on Tuesday at a sub forum of the Annual Conference of the Financial Street Forum 2022, and said they "welcome" the trend given the importance of the Chinese market to overseas businesses and markets.

The sub forum had a focus on the topic of how the yuan's internationalization evolves under the new global situation. 

"Internationalization is absolutely key for a company like ours, in China in particular, so the natural evolution and internationalization of the yuan is something that our company considers welcome," Hugues de La Marnierre, CEO of Societe Generale China, said at the forum.

Global companies' participation in the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), a Chinese system which clears and settles yuan transactions, is one of the steps that could facilitate the yuan's internationalization for global transactions. He also called for the launch of more financial tools to offset the yuan's fluctuation and risks. 

"For yuan internationalization, we don't believe there's a position of competition to have between institutions. The right position should be more collaboration," he urged. 

Saif Humaid Al Dhaheri, deputy head of Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE), also noted at the forum that the yuan's trend of internationalization will bring benefits to the country. 

He mentioned that the yuan's inclusion in the basket of currencies that make up the Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, has brought about hundreds of trillions of investment that involves institutional investors and large pension funds. This will further increase those investors' confidence in using the yuan in global trade and financial transactions, he said.

The yuan has been gradually rising as an international currency with the rapid growth of the Chinese economy and against the backdrop of global geo-political tensions. 

The share of the yuan used in global payments stood at 2.13 percent in October, compared with 1.9 percent in June 2021, data from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication showed.

Bai Shipan, a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore, said at the forum that the yuan's internationalization has made some progress and it should be a natural process instead of being accomplished at one stroke.