Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in Beijing Monday that China is working on a plan for a more flexible exchange rate of its currency, but the specific measures might come around unexpected.
China started to reform its exchange rate in 1994 and the work has never stopped. The purpose is to establish a market-based, managed and floating exchange rate, Wen said at the press conference held after the conclusion of the annual session of the National People's Conference (NPC), the top legislature.
Wen said what China is doing now is to lay a solid foundation for such a reform. The necessary prerequisites for the reform include, first, macroeconomic stability and growth and second, a healthy financial situation.
Meanwhile, said Wen, China has already taken a series of measures to ease foreign exchange regulation.
Wen said there has been no agreement on what impacts the change of China's exchange rate, or the appreciation of Renminbi, will have on the Chinese economy, Chinese enterprises and neighboring countries and other countries in the world.
Frankly speaking, although some people strongly ask for the appreciation of Renminbi, they don't fully understand the problems arising from the appreciation, Wen said.
China is a responsible country. On the issue of the appreciation of Renminbi and the exchange rate system, China not only considers the domestic interests, but also its possible impacts on neighboring countries and the world, he said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2005)
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