China missed opportunity to sell assets abroad

China missed an opportunity to push forward the internationalization of its currency and defuse financial risks last year by not selling parts of its assets to overseas investors amid expectations for the appreciation of the yuan, an economist told a forum Sunday.

Ha Jiming, vice chairman and chief investment strategist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc's investment management division for China, made the remarks at the annual China Entrepreneurs Forum in Northeast China's Yabuli.

Ha said he had suggested related authorities to sell Chinese bank assets in overseas markets as a way to push forward the internationalization of the yuan and develop China's financial industry.

"Last year, the market had high expectations for the appreciation of the yuan. If we had offered overseas investors 3 or 5 percent of the assets, they would have considered it as 8 or 10 percent, because they expected the yuan to rise by 5 to 6 percent in value," Ha said.

However, Ha noted that as there may be limited room this year for further appreciation of the yuan, many investors now hold bearish outlook toward Chinese banks, and therefore, China has missed the opportunity to sell its assets.

However, Ha's views were countered by other experts.

Zhong Dajun, director of the Beijing Dajun Institute for Economic Observation, said it is not wise to promote the internationalization of the yuan through such a method, given that some State-owned enterprises suffered great losses from selling their assets several years ago.

"The suggestion may be inspired by the fact that a lot of overseas financial giants are coveting China's abundant State-owned assets," Zhong told the Global Times.

Yu Qiao, a professor at the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that the internationalization of the yuan is a long-term process that cannot be realized through just one or two measures in a short period, and that enterprises should not make hasty decisions.