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E-CNY Trials Expanded


发布时间：2021-09-30 15:09:53    来源于：CBF

摘要：

China's digital economy maintained rapid growth during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, with annual average growth of more than 16.6 percent, the People's Daily overseas edition reported.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by the end of last year, the value-added of core industries of China's digital economy account for 7.8 percent of GDP, with obvious enhancement in quality and efficiency.

China has put more effort into promoting the development of the digital economy in recent years, providing strong support for building a Digital China, said Yang Yuyan, director of the information technology development bureau of the ministry.

China has built the largest fiber-optic and 4G networks in the world, with the number of 5G terminal connections surpassing 200 million.

Software and information services, electronic information manufacturing and telecommunications service experienced burgeoning development. Taking software as an example, last year the industry posted revenue of 8.16 trillion yuan, up 13.3 percent year-on-year.

The government sped up digital transformation and promoted the construction of industrial internet. At present, China has established more than 80 influential industrial internet platforms, with the number of industrial applications surpassing 350,000, providing strong support to enhance quality and efficiency while reducing costs.

In terms of information consumption, the nation actively cultivated and popularized data-driven new business modes and patterns. It is worth mentioning that online education, telecommuting and online shopping played an important role during the fight against COVID-19.

Meanwhile, State-owned enterprises actively took part in digital transformation and achieved positive progress, said Gou Ping, director of the bureau of technological innovation and social responsibility under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

SOEs fully played a key role in new infrastructure, such as 5G, big data centers and industrial internet, Gou said. More than 80 centrally controlled SOEs built group-level data centers and industrial internet platforms. Commercial Aircraft Corp of China built the first fully connected 5G factory in China.

SOEs also deepened the integration of digital technology and production operation, making major strides in digital innovation, production operation intellectualization and industrial system ecologicalization, Gou added.

Next, the nation will speed up the development of digital industrialization and industrial digitization, improve the digital governance system and promote digital services, said Sun Wei, director of the innovation and high-tech development bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission.

China will promote rapid growth of digital economy and strengthen innovation application of key digital technologies, Sun added. The government will drive the reform of modes of production, living and governing via digital transformation to promote high-quality development.

China's six major commercial banks are stepping up digital wallet efforts to provide new impetus for the digital renminbi trials in the country.

The Shanghai branch of State-owned Bank of China has allowed customers to apply for digital wallets via its official WeChat account. Upon approval, which normally takes three to five working days after receipt of the application, the user will receive a text message with the download links for the official digital yuan application.

Bank of China officials said the user will be able to add other bank accounts to the official application. A personal quick response code is generated within the application for payments. But details of transfer are yet to be confirmed.

Simple paperwork is needed at China Construction Bank's Shanghai branch. The applicant's job information is checked against a white list. Once approved, the applicant will see the digital wallet interface automatically generated in his/her CCB application. The digital wallet can be used like Alipay and WeChat Pay, said CCB officials.

As reported by Shanghai Securities News on Tuesday, China's six major commercial banks, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Postal Savings Bank of China, BOC and CCB, have started to promote the use of digital yuan wallets. Tencent-backed WeBank and Alibaba-supported MyBank, both of which are online-only private banks, are also getting ready to test the digital wallet.

The application of e-CNY started last April in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, Suzhou, Jiangsu province, Chengdu, Sichuan province and the Xiong'an New Area in Hebei province. Since then, the application scenarios have been significantly enriched. In early December, JD became the first online retailer in the country to accept digital yuan payments. At the same time, the digital yuan wallet is connected to the bike-sharing service of Meituan, video site Bilibili and ride-hailing platform Didi Chuxing, all of which are part of Suzhou's continued trials of digital wallet application.

Mu Changchun, head of the People's Bank of China's Digital Currency Research Institute, said that e-commerce platforms that accept payments via e-CNY will not have access to users' personal information. E-CNY users can open an anonymous digital wallet by registering a mobile phone number, and telecom operators should not disclose customer information to the central bank or any third-party institutions.

In other words, the e-CNY users' privacy protection is at the highest level among all the existing payment tools, according to Mu.

To promote the use of digital wallets, the first pilot program of the e-CNY digital red packets was conducted in Shenzhen's Luohu district in October last year. Since then, China's central bank has distributed at least 150 million yuan ($23 million) worth of red packets in Beijing, Suzhou, Chengdu, as well as Shenzhen's Futian and Longhua districts.

Cheng Shi, chief economist and managing director of ICBC International, wrote in a report released in early March that the development of e-CNY has started to "accelerate", with steady progress in the online and offline financial infrastructure development. The e-CNY use has also been clearly stated in the regional government work plans released earlier this year.

China will further expand trials of e-CNY, the digital currency floated by the People's Bank of China, the central bank, and tighten regulations on privately-created cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Stablecoin, according to officials and experts.

Bitcoin is a digital or virtual currency that uses peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments, while Stablecoin is a cryptocurrency where the value is tied to an outside asset, such as the dollar or gold.

China considers Bitcoin and Stablecoin as cryptoassets, which means they are not seen as real currencies, but only as investment assets. The nation is planning to improve the regulatory environment for these alternative investments, to ensure that speculative activity will not result in serious financial risks, said PBOC Vice-Governor Li Bo.

"Before the launch of any regulatory measures, we will maintain what we are doing right now," Li said during a session discussion of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2021.

Unlike for Bitcoin, the regulations for some types of Stablecoin should be tighter, as they need to follow the regulations for payment tools issued by private sector banks or quasi-banking financial institutions, said Li.

Zhou Xiaochuan, former governor of the central bank, said the financial sector should continue to serve the real economy.

"Whether it is a digital currency or a digital asset, it should closely integrate with and serve the real economy," Zhou said.

Zhou also said that digital currency could benefit the real economy and support a large number of payments.

Though financial regulators have expressed concern about cryptocurrencies, they are promoting the launch of the central bank digital currency. According to Li, authorities are planning to expand trials of the digital yuan, or e-CNY, in more cities and for various scenarios.

"For example, in the pilot program of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the digital yuan will not only be offered to domestic users, but also for international users," said Li.

In addition, China is finding ways to exchange of various digital currencies issued by world's leading central banks, which is a complicated issue. "We are not in a hurry to find a solution. We are choosing different options to experiment with various technologies. We are open-minded. The goal is to build a very solid domestic digital yuan and a healthy ecosystem," Li added.

China is exploring ways to use its digital yuan for cross-border transactions to meet market demand, the central bank said.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has worked with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on the technical testing of using the digital yuan for cross-border payments on the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, said Wang Xin, an official with the PBOC, at a news conference.

For this purpose, the PBOC is also cooperating with the HKMA and central banks of Thailand and the United Arab Emirates in a multilateral research project, Wang said.

China's digital yuan testing is making steady progress, with more test scenarios coming into use.

Several Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shenzhen and Suzhou, have piloted this digital currency since last year.

（责任编辑：Henry）

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