Shanghai is set to become the global centre of yuan trading, clearing and pricing by 2015.

People walk past an HSBC sign in Pudong, Shanghai.

That's right, China is determined to turn the Pearl of the Orient into its own version of New York, London or Hong Kong.

China is aiming to make the fast-developing coastal city an international financial centre by 2020, a goal set by the State Council in 2009.

The National Development and Reform Commission released a blueprint Monday envisioning a trading hub with annual non-forex financial market trading of 1-thousand trillion yuan by 2015, up from less than 400 trillion yuan in 2010. The commission also expects the Shanghai-based interbank bond market to rank among the world's top three in terms of outstanding bonds.

The NDRC said the yuan's central parity, a daily reference exchange rate published by the People's Bank of China, will become a main pricing and trading benchmark for the currency traded both onshore and offshore by 2015.

China will also encourage overseas companies to sell yuan-denominated shares in its domestic stock markets, but the plan did not give a detailed timetable.

The NDRC also said Shanghai is expected to remain world's largest spot gold market in terms of trading volume through 2015 and the city aims to be one of the world's top five financial derivative markets by then.

As for the long-discussed "international board", Shanghai's mayor said earlier this month that the time was not currently right for its launch.

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