Cross-border yuan settlement business in Guangdong province has been gaining strong momentum since the payment pilot scheme was first introduced in July 2009, a senior banking official told an industry forum on Friday.

By the end of March this year, businesses settled by cross-border yuan in the southern economic powerhouse had reached 2.42 trillion yuan ($393.1 billion), accounting for more than 30 percent of the nation's total, said Li Simin, vice-president of the Guangzhou Branch of the People's Bank of China.

In the first quarter of this year alone, cross-border deals settled by yuan in the province increased 106 percent year-on-year to 394.5 billion yuan.

"Renminbi has become the second largest currency for cross-border payment in Guangdong," Li said at a financing forum on Friday in Guangzhou, the provincial capital.

Li said 17,000 Guangdong-based companies have conducted cross-border yuan settlement business with counterparts from 169 countries and regions.

Zhang Xialing, deputy director general of Foreign Trade Department of Ministry of Commerce, added: "Cross-border yuan settlement business plays an important role for Chinese companies in their industrial upgrading process as it helps avoid risks brought about by the rising value of the yuan."