On March 31, 2022, the people’s Bank of China held a symposium on the pilot work of digital RMB research and development, summarized the pilot work of early research and development, and arranged and deployed the work of the next stage. Yi Gang, President of the people’s Bank of China, and fan Yifei, vice president of the people’s Bank of China, attended and addressed the meeting.
The meeting held that since 2017, the people’s Bank of China, together with all participating institutions and with the strong support of the party committees and governments in the pilot areas, has comprehensively grasped and carefully organized, steadily carried out the pilot, dynamically improved the business technology design, continuously innovated the application scenarios, made efforts to solve the difficult and painful problems of financial services, and preliminarily verified the feasibility and reliability of the theories, policies, businesses and technologies related to digital RMB. At present, digital RMB has formed a number of application modes covering Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) , replicable and popularized in the fields of wholesale and retail, catering, culture and tourism, government payment, etc. major pilot projects such as the scenes of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and winter Paralympic Games have been successfully completed. The users, businesses and transaction scale participating in the pilot have increased steadily, and the market has responded well.
The meeting pointed out that with the further promotion of the pilot test, digital RMB R & D faces new situations and problems in highlighting convenience, optimizing inclusiveness, highlighting innovation, ensuring security, reflecting compliance and strengthening sustainability, which need to be further studied and explored.
The meeting stressed that the digital RMB R & D pilot should adhere to the “people’s character” and play a greater role in expanding the coverage of financial services, improving the level of inclusive financial services, helping local economic development, supporting the construction of digital government, improving the quality and efficiency of financial services to the real economy, and improving the business environment. We should adhere to marketization. In the process of the development, promotion and popularization of digital RMB, policy design should fully stimulate the enthusiasm and creativity of financial institutions, science and technology enterprises, local governments and other parties, and encourage competition in promoting the operation. We should adhere to the rule of law, carry out all work in accordance with the law, carry out legal construction in a forward-looking manner, ensure the security of the digital RMB system, grasp the relationship between privacy protection and crime prevention, and deeply study the potential impact on the financial system and other aspects.
The meeting requested that in the next step, all relevant participants should follow the deployment of the 14th five year plan, adhere to the general tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability, assume their respective responsibilities and cooperate with each other to steadily promote the pilot of digital RMB research and development. We will expand the scope of the pilot in an orderly manner. On the basis of the existing pilot areas, we will add six cities hosting the Asian Games in Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Fujian Province and Zhejiang Province as the pilot areas. Beijing and Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province will become the pilot areas after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and winter Paralympic Games are completed. Adhere to the “two-tier operation” structure, give full play to the advantageous role of the designated operation organization, and strengthen the pilot application and ecosystem construction. Strengthen the construction of safety and risk prevention and control system, improve relevant laws and regulations and standard system, deepen the research on theoretical issues, and constantly consolidate the pilot foundation of digital RMB research and development.
Relevant departments and bureaus of the people’s Bank of China, units directly under the people’s Bank of China, all digital RMB participating R & D institutions, and relevant responsible comrades of local governments in pilot areas and branches of the people’s Bank of China attended the meeting.
