By George Ward
The digital Yuan (Renminbi) experiment is running smoothly, according to guarantees given to the public by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC). The CBDC is currently expanding existing pilot locations and creating new ones.
The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) stated that their trial with digital currency was “moving smoothly.” A top-level of the apex bank made the statement at the 2023 Working Conference of the People’s Bank of China.
The Digital Yuan Advancements
The conversation included some subjects about China’s economy, including the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the conference, one of the main subjects of discussion was the state of the digital Yuan, the country’s digital currency.
According to the PBoC, the pilot program for the digital Yuan was progressing steadily. This is not particularly unexpected given how frequently the nation has expanded the CBDC’s trial phase.
It recently conducted some new trials as other countries began implementing their testing. However, it can still be some time before the national digital currency is used nationwide.
The progress made in China’s CBDC pilot programs has greatly benefited the country. When Alipay just joined the CBDC’s processing network, it made history as the first payment platform to do so.
A new phase of the CBDC experiment has started, per a central bank report last year, and that includes using the digital Yuan to pay for bus tickets and accommodation fees. Testing has transitioned from pilot sites to more general provincial usage.
The locations are Chengdu in the Sichuan Province of southwest China, Xiongan New Area in the Hebei Province of North China, Suzhou in the Jiangsu Province of East China, and Shenzhen in the Guangdong Province of South China.
Steps For Better Results
Despite the positive vibes regarding the usage of the digital Yuan, many doubts still exist. For instance, Xie Ping, a former PBOC research head and finance professor at Tsinghua University, stated that the total trading volume of the national digital currency had barely topped $14 billion in two years.
Ping believes that the results may be better and that the CBDC’s use case must change for better results. According to him, it should be integrated with new payment platforms and used to purchase financial items.
China’s central bank will test the digital Yuan smartphone app in four places, with a fifth site in view. China’s central bank declared it would test a smartphone application for storing and trading the digital Yuan in response to viral photographs on social media.
According to a statement issued by the bank, the PBoC intends to start internal digital Yuan app testing in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong’An, and Chengdu. The same four cities were listed on the test application’s registration page.