While newspaper headlines fret about what some see as a deepening economic crisis in China, Saxo Bank's Steen Jakobsen says the country's longer term plan will see its status transformed. Steen says the Chinese are trying to redefine the whole domestic market with its 'One Belt One Road' initiative, which will lead to the construction of major projects in numerous countries.
For that to succeed, the internationalisation of China's currency, the renminbi, is key. Steen expects the RNB will soon become part of the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights currency basket. It's the one step, he says, that makes you a 'serious international player'. In five years, the RMB will be one of the world's top five traded currencies, he says.