BEIJING, June 7 --China will grant the United States a quota of 250 billion yuan (38 billion U.S. dollars) under the country's Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) program, an official with the central bank said Tuesday.

"China values the cooperation with the U.S., and both sides will jointly promote renminbi businesses in North America," Yi Gang, vice governor of the People's Bank of China, told press at the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues on Tuesday.

The RQFII mechanism was launched in December 2011 to widen investment channels for overseas renminbi funds on the Chinese mainland, allowing those that qualify to invest in China's securities market within a permitted quota. It aims partly to increase the international use of renminbi.

Yi said China was considering appointing qualified foreign institutions as settlement institutions and bond underwriters, and is simplifying the approval procedures for its RQFII program.

The new quota will expand the mechanism by about 50 percent. The combined RQFII quota stood at 501.77 billion yuan at the end of last month.

By the end of May, China had approved RQFII quotas to 165 institutions from 10 countries and regions.