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The Economy
the outstanding amount of RMB loans leaping from RMB79 billion at the end of 2012 to RMB116 billion at the end of 2013. RMB bond issuance fetched a total of RMB117 billion during 2013, pushing up the outstanding RMB bonds by more than 30 per cent to RMB310 billion as at the end of 2013. The Central Government announced it would regularise its sovereign bond issuance programme in Hong Kong, and retail investors in Hong Kong were for the first time able to subscribe for sovereign bonds. In June, Hong Kong launched the CNH Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate fixing, providing a reliable benchmark for pricing loan facilities and helping facilitate the development of the RMB financing market.
Hong Kong's offshore RMB investment product market also broadened considerably in 2013 to reinforce the city's role as the leading offshore RMB centre. Apart from the already wide range of RMB products available in the market, the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) scheme was enhanced further in March to relax the application criteria for RQFII status as well as the investment restrictions on RQFII funds. In addition, the RMB investment product range in Hong Kong was widened by developments such as the addition of RMB-denominated money market funds to the investment choices available within mandatory provident fund schemes, the listing of dual-counter RMB 'dim sum' bond index exchange traded funds and equity-linked investments with RMB features, and an RMB share class offered by a fund authorised by the Securities and Futures Commission with underlying investments mostly in non-RMB denominated assets.
Hong Kong's role as a platform to support global RMB payments has been deepening. In December 2013, the average daily turnover of Hong Kong's RMB Real Time Gross Settlement system amounted to RMB500 billion. As at the end of 2013, there were 216 banks participating in the RMB clearing platform in Hong Kong, of which 191 were the overseas presence of Mainland banks or branches and subsidiaries of foreign banks, forming a global RMB payment network covering some 40 countries and regions. According to the statistics from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), banks in Hong Kong handled around 80 per cent of global RMB payments.
Economic co-operation with the Mainland has been continuously enhanced through the broadening of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA). In August, Supplement X to CEPA was signed, providing 73 services liberalisation and trade and investment facilitation measures, including 65 liberalisation measures in trade in services and eight measures to strengthen co-operation in areas of finance and trade and investment facilitation. Under these measures, Hong Kong service suppliers enjoy preferential treatment in entering the Mainland's service industries.
The construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) and related local projects. continued apace in 2013. When completed in 2016, the HZMB will significantly reduce commuting time and transportation costs between Hong Kong and the western Pearl River Delta (PRD) region and help the flow of people and goods within the PRD. Construction of the Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link also progressed. Upon completion, it will reduce the journey time between Guangzhou and Hong Kong to 48 minutes, and give passengers easy access to the Mainland's 16,000 kilometres high-speed railway network to all the major cities.
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