peter pang : asia treasury trailblazer summit 2015 speech by mr peter pang, deputy chief executive of the hong kong monetary authority, at the asia treasury trailblazer summit 2015, hong kong, 30 april 2015. * * * distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, 1. i am delighted to join you this morning to take part in the asset ’ s inaugural asia treasury trailblazer summit. i like the buzz word “ trailblazer ” in the banner and the chosen theme of this event : “ taking treasury to the next level ’. 2. “ trailblazer ” quite rightly describes the role and requisite mentality of corporate treasurers now operating in asia. the region is in unchartered waters awash with groundbreaking opportunities and, at the same time, unprecedented challenges. if we can rise up to the challenges and capitalise on the opportunities, multinational companies ( mncs ), leveraging on strategic application of their treasury capabilities, can certainly raise their business to the next level. 3. let ’ s take a closer look at these opportunities and challenges and give some thoughts on how the public and private sectors can work together to engineer a win - win solution. 4. after three decades of high speed growth, propelled by china ’ s rise to become the second largest economy and the largest trading nation, all global mncs are expanding their presence in asia, and the share of global revenues generated in asia continue to rise at a staggering speed. according to the asia business outlook survey by the economist, “ in 2011, western firms said that asia contributed 19 % of their global revenues. in 2012, that figure rose to 22 %. by 2017, western firms expect asia to contribute 32 %. however, this will still be below asia ’ s estimated 35 % share of the global economy in 2017. ” 5. the use of rmb is now catching up with china ’ s rising economic clout. starting from scratch in 2009, the portion of china ’ s trade settled in the rmb quickly surged to 20 % in 2014, amounting to 6. 6 trillian yuan, equivalent to more than us $ 1 trillion. and, in the same year, over 30 % and 16 % of china ’ s inward and outward direct investment respectively were denominated in the rmb. increasingly, mncs will find it advantageous and necessary to trade with their asian counterparts, and to conduct the related financing, investment and hedging activities in the rmb.

cash until then. credit institutions will be obliged to arrange appropriate coverage of the risks of anticipated public use, as well as of destruction or theft. in addition, sub - frontloading shall be performed by credit institutions against the delivery of appropriate collateral to the national central banks. as regards the cross - border exchange of national banknotes within the euro area, you may recall that the ecb decided, back in 1998, that each national central bank of the euro area has to provide for at least one location where an exchange of such national banknotes can be effected at the official conversion rates. originally, it was envisaged that this exchange facility would expire on 31 december 2001. now the governing council of the ecb has decided to extend this period until 31 march 2002 in order to expedite the changeover process. for the sake of completeness, i should like to add that the exchange of national banknotes at the respective national central bank after 1 january 2002 will be possible for a much longer period ( at least ten years ). however, according to current planning in member states, the time span for the exchange of national coins will, at least in some countries, be considerably shorter, ranging from one year after the coins have ceased to be legal tender up to an indefinite period. the governing council also reviewed the number of euro banknotes which will have to be printed before the end of 2001, and decided to increase the launch stock of euro banknotes from 13 to 14. 5 billion. in doing so, the governing council took into account the participation of greece, a higher than expected increase in banknotes in circulation within the euro area, an anticipated strong demand for low - denomination banknotes and the slower than anticipated progress in the use of electronic money. the total nominal value of euro banknotes will amount to eur616 billion. another important issue to which the ecb continued to pay considerable attention relates to improvements needed in the field of eu statistics. in conducting monetary policy, the ecb uses a wide range of statistics - broadly speaking : those published in the 60 pages of tables in our monthly bulletin. two sets of statistics of particular importance to us, namely the monthly monetary data and the hicp ( harmonised index of consumer prices ) covering the euro area, compare well in quality and timeliness with corresponding data elsewhere. this is also true for some other areas, such as balance of payments and securities issues. however, in some areas the timeliness and quality of