BOAO, China – China is trying to make it possible for athletes and foreign visitors to use their digital currency during the 2022 Winter Olympics, a senior central bank official said on Sunday.
It could be the first test of China’s digital currency with international users.
Li Bo, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), also said that the goal of the digital yuan or e-CNY (electronic Chinese yuan) is not to replace the dominance of the US dollar on the international stage.
For the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, we were trying to make e-CNY available not only to domestic users, but also to international athletes and similar visitors.
Li Bo
Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China
The PBOC began researching the digital yuan in 2014 and has recently launched several pilot projects in China that allow residents of cities like Shenzhen and Beijing to test the currency with retailers. The e-CNY aims to replace cash and currency in circulation and increase cashless payments in China. It is not a cryptocurrency nor is it designed as bitcoin.
“For the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, we were trying to make e-CNY available not only to domestic users, but also to international athletes and similar visitors,” Li said during a panel moderated by CNBC at the Boao Forum for in Asia on the island. of Hainan.
He told China’s central bank will include “more scenarios and more cities” to test the digital yuan.
The deputy governor said there is still no timetable for the national implementation of the digital yuan, but that the PBOC needs to increase the scope of its pilot projects and “strengthen” the technological infrastructure that underpins the digital currency.
Challenge to the US dollar?
Several commenters have suggested that China’s digital yuan could be a way to internationalize the renminbi and also challenge the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency. Much of international trade happens in US dollars.
But Li reiterated that the PBOC focuses on the domestic use of digital currency.
“For the internationalization of the renminbi, we have said many times that it is a natural process and that our goal is not to replace (the) US dollar or any other international currency,” Li said. “I think our goal is to allow the market to choose and facilitate international trade and investment.”
On February 24, 2021 in Yichang, Hubei Province, Chengdu City, Chengdu City begins distributing 200,000 “red packages” E-CNY worth 40 million yuan, with a red package of Chinese digital currency worth 40 million yuan.
VCG | Visual China Group | Getty Images
However, the PBOC is collaborating with other central banks, including those in Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, to explore the use of the digital yuan in cross-border trade.
“Our goal again is that we want to establish a very strong domestic e-CNY first and build a healthy ecosystem. At the same time, we work with our international partners. We hope that, in the long term, we have a cross-border solution as well,” he said. tell her.