BEIJING, June 22 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank said on Tuesday that the pilot program of yuan settlement in foreign trade has been expanded to 20 province-level regions to facilitate trade and investment.

The newcomers are Beijing, Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong, Hubei, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Hainan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Sichuan, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Tibet and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

China introduced the pilot program in July 2009. Exporters in Shanghai, and several cities in the manufacturing base of Guangdong Province were the first batch that could settle foreign trade in yuan.