Almost all measures advanced for GBA development by central bank implemented
About 90 per cent of 30 specific measures for the development of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) issued by People’s Bank of China last year have been implemented, according to Guangdong Financial Supervisory Authority, online news platform Newsgd.com reported.
The guideline was jointly issued on May 14, 2020 by the People’s Bank of China, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.
It proposed specific measures for these five areas: promoting the Greater Bay Area’s cross-border trade and facilitating investment and financing, expanding the opening-up of the financial sector, promoting the connectivity of financial markets and financial infrastructure, boosting innovation of the Greater Bay Area’s financial services, and preventing cross-border financial risks.
The document introduced measures to promote the offshore use of RMB in Hong Kong and Macau, while strengthening the leading role of Hong Kong and Macao as financial hubs, and new pilot programs that will test new reform measures, such as Chinese bank account reforms to allow the pooling of multiple currencies in one account.
Most recently Chinese authorities have set an initial RMB150 billion (US$23.2 billion) quota for transactions under its Wealth Management Connect scheme linking Guangdong province with offshore centres Hong Kong and Macau.
According to Guangdong Financial Supervisory Authority with the launch of direct payment service for cross-border electronic bills, Macau residents can pay their bills for public utilities or livelihood services in Guangdong.
Hong Kong and Macau residents were said to have opened a total of 1400,000 personal accounts on the Chinese Mainland through agents, with a total of 4.478 million transactions amounting to RMB3.27 billion reported.
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