The Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) announced on Thursday that it has received approval from the central bank to issue two billion yuan worth of Renminbi bonds in Hong Kong.

China Exim Bank will become the second mainland bank to issue such bonds in Hong Kong after the China Development Bank (CDB). The CDB issued five billion yuan worth of RMB bonds from June 26 to July 6.

China Exim Bank said it will sell the bonds to both individual and institutional investors after getting approval from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.

It did not provide other details about its bonds sales.

Both China Exim Bank and China Development Bank are policy banks. The Bank of China and China Construction Bank, two of the nation's big-four state-owned commercial banks, have announced they are considering issuing RMB bonds in Hong Kong.

The People's Bank of China (PBoC) and the National Development and Reform Commission issued a regulation on June 8 that would allow policy and commercial banks to issue the yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong.

"The issuance of RMB bonds will strengthen Hong Kong's status as an international financial center," Ma Delun, assistant governor of the PBoC, said in June.

Founded in 1994 and solely owned by the government, China Exim Bank serves to boost the nation's foreign trade and economic cooperation by providing policy financing, onlending foreign government loans and lending Chinese Government Concessional Loans.

It has 10 business branches and five representative offices nationwide and three overseas representative offices in South Africa, Paris and St. Petersburg.

(Xinhua News Agency July 20 2007)