Shenzhen’s special zone for cooperating with Hong Kong, Qianhai District, will allocate 10 million yuan (US$1.57 million) to motivate enterprises to develop e-CNY-compatible businesses, especially in cross-border e-CNY and fintech labs.
Fast facts
- The Qianhai Administration introduces the policies in a document released on Monday called “Interim Measures for Managing Special Funds for Supporting Financial Industry Development in Qianhai.”
- The document said the authority will reward companies for landing cross-border e-CNY scenarios for 100,000 to 500,000 yuan (US$15,658 to US$78,290) in the region. The companies will receive a subsequent bonus based on the 1% of their cross-border e-CNY transfer volume.
- The Qianhai administration also will reward newly established research centers on the digital yuan, each for 500,000 yuan (US$78,292).
- In addition, institutions that business in digital yuan and migrate to Qianhai can receive a direct award ranging from 1 million to 3 million yuan (US$156,580 to US$469,740).
- Shenzhen was the first city to pilot e-CNY in China and issued four batches of red packets totaling 60 million yuan (US$9.4 million) to promote the adoption of retail CBDC.
- Meanwhile, Qianhai’s cooperation partner, Hong Kong, could become a jumping board for the e-yuan to go international. A multi-national CBDC bridge including Hong Kong, Thailand, UAE, and mainland China has been developed to facilitate cross-border trade and financial activities. The project will enter the pilot phase in 2022.