German entrepreneurs that wish to bolster their market position in China now have a way of entering into business dealings with such Chinese enterprises easier. Despite these advantages, many enterprises still hesitate to use the renminbi. The reasons given are the renminbi’s sticky convertibility and restrictions on the movement of capital. Furthermore, until recently it was not possible to directly trade euros and renminbi.
In many ways, we are therefore dealing with the effects rather than the cause. But we have no choice but to protect our financial position while we try to solve the root cause which is exports. Solving the root cause however is taking a lot of time – a luxury that we are running out of very quickly.