RMB Hubs
Deputy Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan met with U.K. Finance Minister George Osborne to discuss bilateral cooperation regarding economic restructuring, Korea’s efforts to turn itself into a RMB hub, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
They agreed to work more closely together so that the AIIB can be an exemplary organization complying with international standards. In addition, they promised that they would be in strict compliance with the agreements reached at the summit meeting in November 2013, including doubling mutual trade and direct investment by 2020, launching more co-projects in third world countries, enhancing the access to each other’s financial markets, and tackling climate change in cooperation with each other. The U.K. Finance Minister said that he would provide more assistance for Korea so it can become an RMB hub.
After the talks, the Deputy Prime Minister visited Alan Yarrow, lord mayor of London, and discussed the revitalization of the British economy based on a thorough financial reform and the necessity of such a reform in the Korean financial market. “Our financial reform was characterized by tearing down the barriers between banks, insurers, and securities firms, and lifting the restrictions on stock trading fees,” the Lord Mayor of London explained, continuing, “Also, it was because the financial sector had a flexible labor market that London could enhance its competitiveness as the financial center of the world.”
The Deputy Prime Minister and the Lord Mayor of London reached a consensus that London and Seoul can have a complementary relationship as RMB hubs because of the time difference between the two cities. Also, they agreed to cooperate more closely on the internationalization of the Chinese currency.