China to print Sri Lankan currency?

Colombo (News1st) - Several International media reports have claimed that China's ‘Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation’ had successfully won contracts to print currencies for several countries including Sri Lanka. Liu Guisheng, Chairman of China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation, wrote in an article in May in China Finance, a bi-monthly journal run by China's central bank, that the company had "successfully won contracts for currency production projects in a number of countries" including Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Brazil and Poland. Online reports claimed that money production plants of the state-owned ‘Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation’ across the country were running at near full capacity to meet an unusually high quota set by the government this year. Since 1986, Sri Lankan currency was produced by De La Rue Lanka Ltd, a joint venture between De La Rue and the Sri Lankan government. Recently the Central Bank of Sri Lanka said that there are plans to explore issuing a Panda bond (Yuan denominated) in the onshore market in China as well as a Samurai bond in Japan. Responding to a query by News 1st, the Central Bank denied media reports that China was printing money for Sri Lanka. The Indian Finance Ministry has also rejected media reports claiming that China is printing currencies for India among other countries