A senior official from China's central bank said on Thursday Beijing will more than double the daily trading quota under the Swap Connect trading link as it rolls out a string of new measures to support the development of yuan bonds in Hong Kong.

Speaking at Hong Kong's inaugural Fixed Income and Currency Forum 2025, Zou Lan, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China (PBoC), also said Beijing would accelerate global use of the yuan amid rising geopolitical and trade tensions.

Addressing the online forum via a recorded video, Zou noted that yuan bonds have proven to be a good way to preserve and grow investment value and that their global attractiveness has also greatly increased in recent years.

As of the end of August, 1,170 overseas institutions entered the domestic bond market, holding about 3.9 trillion yuan worth of bonds denominated in the Chinese currency.

"Against the backdrop of global high inflation and after excluding the factor of inflation, the real yield of renminbi bonds remains relatively high, providing a very good way for global renminbi holders to preserve and increase their value," he told the forum.

"And from the perspective of safe-haven attributes, renminbi bonds have relatively high diversified investment value and their returns have a relatively low correlation with bond returns from other emerging economies and the G7 countries," he added.

However, Zou noted that there's still much more room to grow the yuan bond market – as foreign investors currently hold only 2 percent of yuan bonds onshore.

Beijing, he added, will also further strengthen financial connectivity with Hong Kong to accelerate the growth of the offshore yuan markets.

One of the new measures would see the central bank support foreign institutions in conducting repo business to boost efficiency of yuan bond use, according to Zou.

The pool of market makers under the Swap Connect scheme, which allows global investors to access the mainland's interbank financial derivatives market to hedge interest-rate risks, will be expanded, with the cap on daily net trading under the scheme to be lifted from 20 billion yuan to 45 billion yuan, he added.

Zou also said authorities would work to supply more high-credit offshore yuan assets in the Hong Kong market and speed up preparations for the launch of yuan-denominated government bond futures here.

The remarks came as Hong Kong also ramped up efforts to increase the use of the offshore yuan, while expanding the bond issuance in the Chinese currency.

Last week, Chief Executive John Lee announced in his Policy Address that the SAR would introduce a "renminbi business facility" and make use of the currency swap agreement with the PBoC.

The two sides have also been working on promoting Chinese onshore bonds to become qualified collateral in Hong Kong and global markets.