The new potential digital currency of China will be first tested in the Great Bay of Hong Kong.
As news.southcn.com reports, Bai Hexiang, the head of the Guangzhou province office of the central bank of China, reported about this initiative:
“We are supporting the first pilot test use of digital currency payments in the Great Bay area, encouraging the participation of qualified financial institutions. Companies using the platform of the joint economy are accelerating the use of applications for digital currencies in state services and are increasing the timing of the playout
The Chinese Digital Currency Testing (CDCT) is already in use in Shenzhen, one of the main cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Gulf. This is a megapolis located in the delta of the Pearl River, which consists of nine cities and two separate administrative areas in the south of China. In general, more than 56 million people live here, which is approximately equal to the population of South Korea.
Furthermore, some Chinese experts believe that the sector of financial technologies in Guangdong is developed enough to hold a natural advantage in the transition from fiat money to digital, which in turn can help the People’s Bank to further encourage the implementation of CDCT.
According to the data of the Guangzhou branch of the bank, in the first quarter of 2020, in the province of Guangdong, 4.5 billion mobile payments were registered in the amount of 12
“Guangdong will continue to foster innovation, establish deeper business integration between Hong Kong and Macao in the virtual banking domain, overcome obstacles and innovate. The integration of digital currencies stimulates modern financial technologies to build and develop the Great Bay area”, stated the head of the Financial oversight bureau of Guangdong province He Syaotzyun.
As always, no specific deadlines are indicated, however, it is not excluded that by the end of 2020 CDCT can be launched in the role of a public currency.
