The Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region have announced that the Central Government will issue national bonds in Macao, valued at six billion RMB [renminbi], according to a statement from the Macau Government Information Bureau.
The issuance, aimed at institutional investors, is scheduled for July 16, as detailed by the bureau.
“The continuous issuance of national bonds in Macao demonstrates the importance and support of the Central Government regarding the development of new financial activity areas in Macao, such as the bond market, and the promotion of diversified economic development in Macao,” stated the Macao SAR Government, welcoming the Ministry of Finance’s decision in Beijing.
The issuance “will help attract international investors to participate in Macao’s bond market, promote the development of the RMB ‘offshore’ market in Macao, and deepen financial cooperation between Mainland China and Macao,” the statement added.
In October, China had already issued debt securities in Macao worth five billion yuan (650 million euros).
The Macao Government has mentioned the potential creation of an ‘offshore’ stock exchange, denominated in renminbi, tied to the role the region has been playing as a commercial and financial services platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.
In January, Macao’s financial regulator noted that the central banks of Angola and Timor-Leste are interested in issuing public debt in the semi-autonomous Chinese region to attract investors from mainland China.
Henrietta Lau Hang Kun, a board member of the Macao Monetary Authority, stated that the institution has been attempting to promote the territory as “a financial services platform among Portuguese-speaking countries.”
“For now, we are still negotiating with the Portuguese-speaking countries” for the debt issuance to “pass through here, via Macao, to the [China] mainland market,” Henrietta Lau added.
In May 2019, Portugal became the first eurozone country to issue debt in the Chinese currency, amounting to two million renminbi (253.4 million euros).
