Hainan Province announces its first-ever CBDC event in an attempt to normalize the digital currency across China. The People’s Bank of China has already conducted pilot tests in other provinces.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has expanded the trials of their CBDC to the Hainan Province. It has announced an event with the hopes of publicizing the use of the new digital currency. Members of the Sansha City government, including their staff, enterprises, and permanent residents, will be the main participants of this trial.
PBOC’s trial expands
This CBDC trial event will run from April 12 to April 25. It will raise awareness for the digital yuan, promoting safe transactions with broad accessibility. Additionally, participants in this trial will get a 15% discount for every 100 yuan spent within the island.
The Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DC/EP) is a legal currency designed to replace the reserve money system. Currently subject to trials, the CBDC is slowly gaining adoption in China. It is treated as an equivalent to coins and banknotes.
The most advanced CBDC project
While the CBDC trials continue throughout China, the cities like Chengdu and Beijing have shown promising success. The second batch of testing has been announced in Shanghai, Changsha, Qingdao, Xi’an, and Dalian.
Currently, the digital yuan is in the trial stage within China. It is undergoing pilot trials as a retail CBDC. Although, in the future, the central bank aims to have interoperability with other countries. The PBOC and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority are now testing the digital yuan for cross-border use.
Additionally, PBOC has included the associated banks of digital payment giants, AliPay and WePay, in their trials to increase adoption. Due to this collaboration, users having WeBank and MyBank accounts can now access their funds using the PBOC run CBDC app. AliPay and WePay put together capture over 93% of the digital payments market in China.
There are currently 573.6 million users for digital payment platforms in China. This number is set to grow to 618 million in 2025 indicating the huge potential for a CBDC in this market.
Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-cbdc-trial-expands-hainan-153128541.html
