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Home >> Business
UPDATED: 14:16, June 25, 2004
A financial emissary from across the Pacific Ocean
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On April 14 in local time, US Treasury Secretary John Snow appointed Paul W. Speltz as the economic and financial emissary for US Department of Treasury in China. Mr. Speltz, 57 years old, currently US executive director to ADB (Asian Development Bank), will perform his duty on behalf of the US Treasury Department in china. He is supposed to materialize Washington's wish to promote China, a very huge economy on remarkable rise, to loosen its RMB exchange rate pegged at US dollar now.

In a statement Secretary Snow recognized the critical importance of the economic and financial relations between US and China to the economy of US and the world. As "China is emerging as a more significant member of the international trading system", said Snow in the statement, it is important that best infrastructure and policies are available in China.

As the first US economic and financial emissary in China, duties of Speltz's are to provide technical advice on Chinese financial and economic affairs, work out proposals to senior officials in US Treasury Department on relevant development in China, making assessment on China's economy and policies and "engage Chinese officials in matters of interest".

The idea of having an economic and financial emissary in Beijing was proposed as early as months ago by US Treasury Department. But it was not until March this year that Snow unveiled at a hearing of Committee on Financial Services of US House of Representatives that a high rank financial emissary would reside in Beijing and began his job from summer this year.

Since 2003, voice in the US for pressuring an immediate appreciation of RMB in an excuse of expanding trade deficit with China has been getting louder. But Snow insisted it was the best choice for US to keep on diplomatic touch with China and offer technical assistance to China for its process toward a floating exchange rage system. It was against backdrop that Speltz was selected by US Treasury Department. And now in China, the Chinese central bank is striving to cool down the economy which has aroused concerns about overheating.

Snow appreciates Mr. Speltz's "firsthand experience" in understanding China's WTO commitments, market progress and monetary policies which may affect American small and medium sized businesses as Speltz has worked in Asia for 30 years, founded small American businesses, and acted as senior executive for international bank group.

Before being appointed as US executive director to ADB, Mr. Speltz hold an array of senior posts in private businesses in Asian countries. His positions included: Co-Executive Managing Director of Global Operations for Bluestone Capital Asia Group, Senior Director and Advisor on Asian Pacific Operations for United Technologies, founder, chairman and CEO of ATC International (an Asia-based marketing and consulting company), Vice Chairman of Citicrop, and vice executive chairman and general manager of WJS. He is also founder and first president of International Chamber of Commerce in Beijing.

His experience in government involves acting as private advisor to US president on Sino-US relations and national security during Carter, Reagan and Bush administrations. He is also an advisor to Business School of University of Connecticut, where he graduated with an MBA in International Business in 1971.

Speltz was nominated as US executive director to ADB in June, 2002. Our latest memory on him was his interview with Financial Times in February this year. He made comments in this interview on China would become a donor country to ADB's soft loans for the first time. He said although China's contribution would only account for a fraction of the new round fund-raising operation totaling 6 to 7 billion USD, they were very glad to see China's efforts toward this direction and would regard it a positive signal from Beijing.

Speltz will keep his position in ADB. He will spend half of his time in Beijing and half in Manila. He said with a smile that he would continue to make Manila his home. But Mr. Speltz seems to look forward more to his new mission, quote : " It is essential for both nations that we can have an appropriate understanding of how our financial systems should interact, adapt, and compete. China's exchanges rate policy will be an important part of our relationship."

Backgrounder
US Treasury Secretary Snow told the Congress in a testimony on Mar.25 that China agreed to have a flexible exchange rate system and they had made a lot of progresses on this. He unveiled that US Treasury Department would have a high profile financial emissary to Beijing at the end of March who would take on his mission from this summer.

Governor of the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, who was on a visit in US then, confirmed that the US side talked about this idea of having a financial emissary at the meeting that day but no specific name was mentioned.

Snow explained the reason for having a resident financial for economic affairs. He said it was not a good idea to appreciate RMB and the best way would be to keep diplomatic contact with China and offer technical assistance to the process of building floating exchange rate of RMB. Snow did not expose any information on details of this senior financial emissary.

By People's Daily Online

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