General

According to the observation report of Huacheng Import and Export Data, recently, the pilot of digital RMB has continued to advance, including multiple pilot areas such as Jiangsu, Shenzhen in Guangdong, and Yiwu in Zhejiang to launch specific plans. Industry insiders believe that the intensive launch of relevant plans has provided a policy basis for promoting digital renminbi in various regions according to local conditions, which is conducive to expanding the application scenarios of digital renminbi, enhancing transaction scale, and is expected to play a greater role in stimulating residents' consumption, helping to reduce costs and improve efficiency, and promoting high-quality development of the digital economy.

Launch specific solutions in multiple locations

At present, the pilot scope of digital RMB has been expanded to 26 regions in 17 provinces (cities), and the integration of digital RMB into various fields of people's clothing, food, housing, and transportation is accelerating.

Since the beginning of this year, the pilot development of digital RMB has continued to accelerate, with specific plans being launched in multiple regions to promote the incremental expansion of application. For example, the "Pilot Work Plan for Deepening the Promotion of Digital RMB in the Yiwu Small Commodity Market" released in March proposed 10 specific measures to comprehensively improve the digital RMB acceptance environment in the Yiwu market, promote a significant increase in transaction scale, and enrich the application scenarios of digital trade.

With the issuance of the "Jiangsu Province Digital RMB Pilot Work Plan", Jiangsu has become the first province to announce the digital RMB pilot work plan. The proposal aims to establish a digital RMB operation and management system with convenient and efficient services, wide application coverage, and relatively complete ecology by the end of 2025. Previously, Shenzhen City issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Shenzhen International Wealth Management Center", proposing to collaborate with Hong Kong to carry out cross-border digital RMB payment pilot projects and work together to create a digital RMB cross-border application demonstration zone. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

The digital RMB has basically completed top-level design, functional research and development, system debugging, and other work, following the principles of stability, safety, controllability, innovation, and practicality for pilot work. "Wang Yifeng, Chief Analyst of Everbright Securities Finance, said that this year, various pilot regions have launched specific work plans, indicating the steady progress of research and development pilot work.

The local plans present three characteristics: firstly, the application of digital renminbi in the public sector and its value to the real economy have received widespread attention; secondly, the content mainly involves cutting-edge technologies related to digital renminbi; and thirdly, specific quantitative indicators are proposed for the promotion of digital renminbi. "said Su Xiaorui, a senior consultant in the financial industry at Analysys.

Continuously expanding application scenarios

Since the pilot launch, the application scenarios of digital RMB have been continuously enriched, with an increase in transaction amount and stock. As of the end of 2022, the stock of digital RMB in circulation has reached 13.61 billion yuan, as reported by Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation.

At the same time, various forms of digital RMB red envelopes launched around "promoting consumption" have played a positive role in expanding domestic demand and stabilizing growth. For example, Meituan gave full play to the advantages of retail platform scenarios, and United Bank launched digital RMB red envelopes and consumption vouchers for users in new pilot areas to help boost consumption and accelerate the popularization and application of digital RMB. Since the pilot project, digital RMB has been issued multiple times in the form of consumer vouchers, combined with smart contracts. It can not only set the usage amount of consumer vouchers, but also be targeted to specific consumer categories and merchants, which is of great significance for accurately boosting the real economy, "said Su Xiaorui.

In addition to the daily consumption of residents, more digital RMB application scenarios are also accelerating their "unlocking". Taking Zhejiang Province as an example, innovative achievements continue to emerge in six pilot areas: four enterprises have successfully participated in the cross-border application testing of the multilateral central bank's digital currency bridge, exploring new models for the cross-border application of digital RMB; The release of the Asian Games themed hardware wallet provides a new payment experience for both domestic and international people; Digital RMB has effectively broken through in the field of financial services, successfully landing in new scenarios such as credit issuance, insurance compensation, and wealth management purchases

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, the digital renminbi is strengthening cooperation with institutions in the circulation process and ecosystem, accelerating the expansion of application scenarios in the "face". On the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen the cooperation between "money" and "wallet". For example, Alipay has been used as a payment platform to access digital RMB, and Alipay provides payment services. Taobao, Elema, Tmall Supermarket, Hema, etc. can use digital RMB for payment; On the other hand, in the era of mobile payment, smartphones have become the main hardware carrier for payment. Digital RMB continues to strengthen cooperation with mobile phone manufacturers, and some models such as Xiaomi, vivo, and Huawei have achieved digital RMB without electricity payment.

The continuous innovation and enrichment of application scenarios are conducive to the promotion and popularization of digital renminbi, and will also bring more convenience to people's lives. "Su Xiaorui said that in the future expansion space of scenarios, two factors can be mainly considered: firstly, in the field of cross-border payments, how to leverage the value of digital renminbi in international trade, cross-border consumption, and other scenarios; The second is how to extend to broader rural areas and help more people cross the "digital divide".

Digital currency has lowered the threshold for accessing financial services, "Wang Yifeng said. The pilot scenario of digital RMB has covered areas such as living expenses, transportation, and government services. With the expansion of the pilot scope and the enhancement of promotion efforts, the vertical depth of the coverage of digital RMB application scenarios will be further deepened and refined.

Improve ecological system construction

Industry insiders believe that although many substantial results have been achieved in pilot projects in multiple fields, the digital RMB ecosystem still needs to be improved. To fully leverage its unique functions, market participants need to work together to continue to improve infrastructure and expand application scenarios.

"To promote the construction of digital RMB ecology, we need to establish a sustainable development mechanism and mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties." Zhou Maohua, a macro researcher in the financial market department of Everbright Bank, said that the normalization of payment behavior will be the basis for the construction of digital RMB ecology. On the one hand, we should continue to promote the use of digital RMB through various activities to make more people accept it; On the other hand, we should accelerate the improvement of the digital RMB infrastructure, improve user experience through software and hardware upgrades and optimization, and further strengthen system security and reliability.

Promotion and application need to be integrated into the wave of digital economy development, and drive the joint development of upstream and downstream industrial chains through digital renminbi. Wang Yifeng said that digital currency, as a cross-border payment tool, has advantages such as flexibility, convenience, and traceability. As the world's second largest economy, China should actively participate in international cooperation and explore the formulation of legal digital currency rules in payment transactions, And actively explore the feasibility of using digital RMB for cross-border payments.

Ouyang Rihui, Vice President of the China Internet Economy Research Institute at Central University of Finance and Economics, believes that to accelerate the construction of an open digital RMB ecosystem, firstly, we should continue to improve the scenario construction and payment plan of digital RMB smart contracts, and implement the smart contract application of digital RMB in merchant sales, intelligent electronic payment, and agency payment business; Secondly, we will continue to enrich the application scenarios of digital renminbi by expanding the breadth and depth of pilot projects; The third is to strengthen the deep integration of digital RMB and digital trade, and gradually explore application scenarios in fields such as industrial internet and cross-border trade.

Vice President of the People's Bank of China, Xuan Changneng, stated that the People's Bank of China will orderly promote the pilot research and development of digital renminbi, continuously improve top-level design and ecosystem construction, strengthen product and application innovation, gradually establish and improve management frameworks, and continuously deepen the pilot results. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.