Malaysia China General Chamber of Commerce: Encourage Malaysian enterprises to settle trade in RMB
Malaysia China General Chamber of Commerce (hereinafter referred to as the "Malaysia China General Chamber of Commerce") said on the 9th that it hoped Malaysian enterprises would make good use of the Malaysia China bilateral local currency swap agreement and settle in RMB to reduce transaction costs. The General Chamber of Commerce of Malaysia and China also called for further increasing the local currency swap line between Malaysia and China in the future to promote regional financial stability.
The General Chamber of Commerce of Malaysia and China pointed out that the exchange rate of RMB against ringgit is relatively stable, and the risk of using ringgit and RMB exchange as commercial settlement is low, which is also conducive to the cost reduction of the country's trade enterprises with China, especially small and medium-sized enterprises.
The National Bank of Malaysia reached a bilateral local currency swap agreement with the People's Bank of China in 2009, and officially launched RMB settlement business in 2012. According to the Malaysia China Chamber of Commerce cited the data of the National Bank of Malaysia, the amount of RMB foreign exchange transactions in Malaysia was as high as RMB 997.7 billion in 2015. Although it fell back for a while, it has risen again since 2019, reaching RMB 621.8 billion in 2020.
Lu Guoxiang, President of the Malaysia China General Chamber of Commerce, pointed out that from the above data, there is still room for improvement in the amount of RMB transactions in Malaysia.
Lu Guoxiang said that the total bilateral trade between Malaysia and China in the first eight months of this year exceeded 131.2 billion US dollars, an increase of 21.1% over the same period last year. He called on the Malaysian government to actively reach a larger bilateral local currency swap agreement with China, save foreign exchange settlement costs for businesses and governments of the two countries, and further encourage more local large, small and medium-sized enterprises to use RMB in trade settlement.