Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said the renminbi or RMB (Chinese currency) service in Hong Kong banks has good responses and the renminbi service expansion should be conducted step by step, from simple to complicated services.
   
He made the remarks at an annual dinner of the Hong Kong Association of Banks.
   
Zhou said the central bank will certainly adopt an active attitude to the matter and the expansion of renminbi service requires study, exchanging of views and preparations for a period of time.
   
Zhou said more Chinese mainland funds could be used to invest abroad with the increasing of deposit reserves.
   
The renminbi service of Hong Kong banks has witnessed a rapid development. According to a press release from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority on Friday, the renminbi deposit volume in Hong Kong banks reached 22.4 billion yuan US$(2.76 billion) in August, 500 million yuan (US$61.8 million) more than that in July.

(Xinhua News Agency October 1, 2005)