So, it sounds like he may end up selling them to other people but only as part of a broader strategy to (and I'm guessing here) make it easier to transfer money to and from emerging markets.

If that's what he's doing (and bear in mind I'm just guessing here) it's a very ambitious goal. I used to trade emerging market equity swaps (which involved hedging FX exposure) and I've worked on international, cross-currency payments systems for one of the biggest banks in the UK. You need to know what you're doing when you're playing around in the FX space. You really need to know what you're doing when you're dealing in emerging markets currencies. I once lost $16,000 in the space of twenty seconds because I made a single, simple mistake.