During the country's ongoing flagship trade and investment fair, investors from China and abroad are urging the nation to speed up financial globalization.

"The US dollar will continue to disappear in the world," said international investment guru Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interests Inc, at the 11th Capital Forum, titled "Financial Globalization in China and the Overview of Global Investment: A Dialogue with Jim Rogers".

"The only currency I can see that is on the rise and can replace the US dollar some day is the renminbi."

The Saturday forum is a prelude to the 17th China International Fair for Investment and Trade, which is held in Xiamen, Fujian province, from Sept 8 to 11. The annual fair, also called CIFIT, is considered to be China's largest and best event for investment promotion.

"China has a large trade surplus and a very large population," Rogers said.

"The US dollar is a troubled currency. I buy more renminbi when I can because I am very optimistic about the future of your currency."

He added that China should "globalize the renminbi in the next 20 minutes rather than the next 20 years" and make the currency convertible to pave the way for financial globalization.

Chen Jinghe, chairman of Zijin Mining Group Co Ltd and also vice-chairman of the China Gold Association, said: "In the past decades, we exported our manufactured products all over the world. And now, we eagerly anticipate financial globalization in China, or to put it simply, renminbi globalization.

"This will advance the opening of China's capital market, which is a deeper level of opening-up."

Though the process of renminbi globalization is accompanied by risks, China has the capability to carry out renminbi globalization in light of the country's huge foreign exchange reserves and abundant private capital, Chen said.

"Renminbi globalization will have a very profound influence on Chinese enterprises, which are revving up to go abroad," Chen said.

"China will face severe problems in terms of economic growth if the country is unable to build up a group of highly internationalized enterprises in the next decade."

China's economic growth slowed to its lowest rate in 13 years in 2012, when GDP growth dropped to 7.8 percent. Growth dipped to 7.7 percent in the January-March period and slowed further to 7.5 percent in the second quarter. Recent economic data suggested that the growth is bottoming out in the world's second-largest economy.

The State Council, or the cabinet, headed by Premier Li Keqiang, approved the Shanghai free trade zone in late August, including an offshore renminbi center, which will help the city experiment with full convertibility of renminbi and morph it into a global financial hub.

Rogers added that China will have problems along the way, but that is just a correction in the long term, and investors should get more involved in China.

"The center of the world is moving from the United States to Asia. While the US is now the largest debt state in the world, the largest creditors are in Asia, including the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The countries in the West are going deeper and deeper into debt," Rogers said.

"I expect the renminbi will go much higher in the next 10 years," Rogers added.

Daniel Healy, chief executive officer of Civitas Capital Group, a US company specializing in investment emigration and wealth management, said that the Chinese market for investment emigration in the US is "rising dramatically and China's financial globalization will ease some restrictions, making business easier".

Tina Hou, managing director of Civitas, added that "China's financial market is maturing and as the Chinese market opens up, we will gain more through bring more outstanding financial products into Chinese market".

lijiabao@chinadaily.com.cn

Renowned financier Jim Rogers shares his opinions with the Capital Forum during the ongoing China International Fair for Investment and Trade, an annual investment promotion in Xiamen, Fujian province. Zhu Xingxin / China Daily

(China Daily 09/08/2013 page17)