Renminbi gets official notice as trade currency in China’s border nations

Thanks to intense promotional efforts by the Chinese government in recent years, the renminbi has become an increasingly common “hard currency” in the frontier cities of neighboring nations, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar (Burma). The trend has impacted local underground banking activities, reports our sister newspaper Want Daily.

In Mong Cai, Vietnam, a city thriving from cross-border trade with China, the renminbi is far more popular than the US dollar. As a result, the Vietnamese government has acknowledged the renminbi as a legitimate currency for circulation in the area and is developing the city into a special economic zone focusing on trade with China.

Russia to create special economic zone in Crimea to woo investors

Russia will make Crimea a special economic zone offering tax breaks and reduced bureaucracy to attract investors, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.

“Our aim is to make the peninsula as attractive as possible to investors, so that it can generate sufficient income for its own development,” Medvedev told a Russian government meeting on the Black Sea peninsula, which Moscow has annexed from Ukraine.

China to open high speed rail link to N.Korean border

China will open a high-speed rail line to the North Korean border next year, state media said on Thursday, in a sign that China remains committed to boosting trade and economic ties with the isolated, nuclear-armed state.

The line, under construction since 2010, will run 207 km (127 miles) from Shenyang to the border city of Dandong, which faces North Korea across the Yalu River, and will shorten the train journey from 3 1/2 hours to one hour, the official Xinhua news agency said.

PHL plans air, naval bases in Subic with access for US forces

The Philippine military has revived plans to build new air and naval bases at Subic Bay, a former U.S. naval base that American forces could use to counter China’s creeping presence in the disputed South China Sea, senior navy officials said.

The proposed bases in the Philippines, a close US ally, coincides with a resurgence of US warships, planes and personnel in the region as Washington turns its attention to a newly assertive China and shifts its foreign, economic and security policy towards Asia.