China Times (www.chinatimes.net.cn) reporter Zhao Yi Hu Jinhua Shanghai photo report
On November 6, a reporter from China Times noticed at the Expo site that many places can see recommendations on the use of digital yuan.
"In addition to the more common digital RMB app, there are a variety of different forms of digital RMB chip wallet products, such as digital RMB visual chip wallet, wearable wallet, etc., users only need a card to touch the payment terminal to complete the payment immediately, which is very convenient." Bank of China staff introduced to the "China Times" reporter.
(Digital RMB chip wallet)
The reporter learned that more than 60 merchants in the Expo pavilion, more than 100 self-service vending machines, the Intercontinental Hotel of the National Exhibition And the terminal station of Metro Line 2 that can directly reach the venue can be paid in digital yuan. It is worth noting that this is the first time that the digital yuan has been used on a pilot basis at the exhibition site.
"The full coverage of the exhibition scene at the Expo shows that the pilot work of the digital yuan is being expanded in an orderly manner, on the other hand, it reflects that the digital yuan fully adopts market-oriented means in the promotion method, combined with the hot spots of the Expo and specific characteristic scenarios to obtain the recognition of the majority of merchants and users, which can not only play the circulation role of the digital yuan in the market, but also help expand the influence of the digital yuan in the country and even the world." Su Xiaorui, senior analyst of Analysys, told this reporter.
Full coverage of the exhibition scene
"It's easy to use, it's fast, the app's interface is nice and looks a lot like cash." A user who has just purchased goods in digital yuan told this reporter.
The reporter learned that the Bank of China opened a digital yuan comprehensive display area at the Expo, through naked-eye 3D interaction, multimedia promotional videos and other forms, vividly displaying the latest pilot achievements in digital yuan wallets, chips, products and other aspects.
"For foreigners, just need to launch the digital yuan version of the foreign exchange machine on the spot, with the passport, you can convert foreign currency cash into the equivalent value of digital yuan according to the real-time exchange rate published by the Bank of China, without registering and binding a bank account." Bank of China staff said.
(Digital RMB foreign exchange machine)
The staff also revealed to reporters that at present, the foreign currency exchange machine has supported 17 kinds of foreign currency cash. Ciie expo is the debut of foreign currency exchange machines, which is specially "customized" by bank of China for the expo.
Wang Fang, deputy dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy Industry of Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, told the China Times reporter that as an important platform under the new development pattern of international and domestic two-way circulation, the promotion of digital yuan with full coverage and multiple scenarios will produce a significant demonstration effect, providing a high-standard test and application field for the promotion of digital yuan, and helping to further promote the process of RMB digitization and RMB internationalization.
Wang Fangfang further said that the comprehensive promotion of the digital yuan at the Expo will also have a positive effect on the Expo itself to improve and improve the level of exhibition services, reduce transaction costs, and improve service efficiency, and will further enhance the international popularity and brand degree of China's Expo.
The digital yuan pilot has reached its full anniversary
Since october 2020, the first large-scale public beta in Luohu, Shenzhen, has reached the first anniversary of the digital yuan pilot work, and its application scenarios are constantly expanding.
On November 3, at the "2021 Hong Kong Fintech Week" forum, Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of Chinese Minzu Bank, introduced that as of October 22, 2021, 140 million digital RMB personal wallets and 10 million corporate wallets have been opened, with a cumulative number of transactions reaching 150 million and a transaction volume of nearly 62 billion yuan. At present, 1.55 million merchants support digital RMB wallets, covering all aspects of public utilities, food services, transportation, shopping and government affairs.
As the second batch of cities in the digital yuan pilot, Shanghai is accelerating the digital yuan pilot work, and on October 27, the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for Shanghai to Comprehensively Promote urban digital transformation", which mentioned that Shanghai will "carry out digital yuan pilots and expand the application of offline and online payment, transportation, government affairs and people's livelihood." ”
In view of the progress of the digital yuan pilot in the past year, Su Xiaorui believes that it has the following characteristics: First, the scope of the pilot area continues to expand, and the number of user subjects covered and the number of digital yuan wallets are constantly rising; second, the types of scenarios are more abundant, starting from the original pilot of small retail, and gradually extended to large-scale payment, cross-border payment and other fields; third, the participation in the digital currency ecology is more perfect, and various market entities continue to participate and join, such as banks, IT manufacturers, third-party payment companies, large Internet platforms, etc.
"Judging from the pilot situation, at present, China's plan to promote the digital yuan as a whole is relatively stable, to achieve large-scale popularization, first of all, it should have mature technical capabilities to ensure the security of the transaction process and payment efficiency, and secondly, more merchants need to access the use of digital yuan to ensure that it has rich application scenarios, and finally it is necessary to increase the popularization of digital yuan related knowledge, cultivate payment habits through various incentive measures, and make the scale of active users continue to accumulate and retain." Su Xiaorui said.
Wang Wentao, associate professor of the School of Economics and Finance of Chongqing University of Technology, told reporters that the impact of digital currency on the rmb exchange rate formation mechanism urgently needs forward-looking layout. With the rise of the modern information technology revolution, digital currency as a new form of virtual assets and financial instruments on finance and currency influence is increasingly strengthened.
In fact, fiat digital currencies have attracted great attention from central banks around the world, and about 86% of central banks are conducting research or experiments on central bank digital currencies (cbDCs). In this regard, Wang Wentao believes that the introduction of fiat digital currency may affect the transmission of monetary policy and the exchange rate formation mechanism, which may not only change the demand for base currency and its composition, but also may change the sensitivity of money demand to interest rate changes, and may also exacerbate currency substitution in countries with high inflation rates and large exchange rate fluctuations.