Shanghai outlined its plan to expand digital yuan pilot programs into the city’s five-year plan, in a recently released policy statement, “Shanghai’s Five-Year Plan of Comprehensive Promotion of Urban Digital Transformation.”
Fast facts
- The plan said the city will expand pilot program for online and offline payments, transportation and government services.
- Shanghai is among the second batch of e-CNY pilot cities. In June and August, Shanghai had issued 750,000 red packets of e-currency to increase its adoption rate.
- In July, Shanghai’s Pudong New Area was designated by the State Council as a future “leading zone for socialist modernization,” and plans to increase economic openness and promote technological innovation in the region over the next five years. The goal is to make the area as a node for linking the internal and external economies under China’s “dual circulation” economic strategy, which aims to expand domestic markets amid international relations tensions and weak exports.
- In addition to Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangzhou, Jiangsu, Tianjin, and Shaanxi plan to further develop e-CNY and fintech.
- The digital yuan, the world’s first major central bank digital currency, has been promoted in nine cities and at the venues of the coming Winter Olympics in China.