The Future of RMB as an International Currency and Shanghai as an International Financial Center

Abstract
China is projected to become the largest economy in the world in the next decade.  This process has already brought a significant change in the international division of labour as exemplified by the decimation of the US manufacturing sector.  This process might also bring about equally large shifts in the economic architecture of the world, e.g. the emergence of an Asian economic bloc, amendments to the governance of international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and new international initiatives on the regulation of trade, capital flows, and environmental pollution.
 
This talk will discuss the possibility of the Renminbi becoming an international currency that will be used as the vehicle to denominate the prices of traded goods and financial assets; and on the possibility of Shanghai becoming an international financial center that would rival those in New York City and London.  The different Japanese and US experiences are useful cases to think about the probability of such outcomes for the Chinese currency and for the Chinese financial industry.  What can the Chinese state do to bring about these outcomes?  What are the dangers to, and the opportunities for, China and the world from Chinese policies to promote the use of the Renminbi and to open the Chinese financial sector?

Introduction
Wing Thye Woo is Executive Director of the Penang Institute in Malaysia, Professor at University of California at Davis, Cheung Kong (Chang Jiang) Professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, Distinguished Professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, and Director of the East Asia Program within The Earth Institute at Columbia University.  His current research focuses on macroeconomic management of open economies, and on the growth the East Asia economies, especially, China, Indonesia and Malaysia.
 

The lecure is arranged by Asia Research Centre and is free of charge, but please sign up at arc.int@cbs.dk