KUNMING -- Southwest China's Yunnan province saw the cross-border renminbi settlement hit 46.1 billion yuan ($7.3 billion) in 2012, a local official said Friday at the ongoing China-South Asia Expo.

Six commercial banks in Yunnan have signed settlement agreements with their counterparts in nine countries including Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Singapore, said Liu Guangxi, director of the provincial financial office.

Data from the office showed that the province's cross-border renminbi settlement has totaled 77 billion yuan since a pilot program was launched in August 2010.

Yum Sui Sang, president of Cambodian Union Commercial Bank, said the renminbi settlement is an inevitable trend for mutual benefits in the Greater Mekong Sub-region.

The GMS is a natural economic area bound together by the Mekong River. It covers 2.6 million square km and is home to around 326 million people.