Chinese business travelers can now use the digital yuan, China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), to purchase air tickets through an e-CNY platform co-launched by China Merchants Bank and the Civil Aviation Administration Clearing Center. This platform also allows business passengers to pay for new services using the digital yuan. The travel firm Suzhou China Travel Service has already used this platform to buy tickets for its clients.
The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) aims to expand the use of the digital yuan in the country’s transport network. In 2022, Beijing Daxing International Airport and Beijing Capital International Airport announced their collaboration on a cargo-related digital yuan initiative. Many airports in the pilot zone have allowed transit passengers to pay for goods and services using the e-CNY. Additionally, railway networks, light rail connections, metro systems, and bus routes in the pilot zone have been upgraded to accept digital yuan payments.
A report by Todayq News on July 4, 2023, T Jinan, China’s capital of Shandong Province, now accepts digital yuan for all bus routes, marking a significant shift in the country’s payment landscape. This move is part of China’s broader effort to promote the digital yuan’s adoption in various sectors.
Recently, the city of Shenzhen reported almost 36 million digital yuan wallets opened by its residents, with over 7 million opened since the beginning of the year. To promote adoption, the city of Changzhou has announced a giveaway of CBDC tokens and coupons worth $700,000. The authorities plan to continue exploring the application of the digital yuan in other sectors of the civil aviation industry.
On July 19, 2023, Dr. Yi Gang, President of the China Society for Finance and Banking, delivered the MAS Lecture 2023 as the honored speaker. The lecture focused on “CBDC from China’s perspective,” where he discussed China’s digital currency, known as the e-CNY. Dr. Yi explained how China successfully created its digital currency and shared insights on its usage and progress to date. The lecture served as a platform for central bankers, regulators, and industry players from Singapore and the region to gain valuable insights on this current and significant financial topic.
The country’s central bank governor has claimed that China’s digital yuan, the e-CNY, has seen significant growth with nearly $250 billion worth of transactions in the one-and-a-half years since its pilot launch. As of the end of June, there had been approximately 950 million transactions from around 120 million wallets, with an average transaction amount of about $260. The total circulation of e-CNY was around $2.3 billion, representing only 0.16% of China’s monetary supply.
However, the adoption of the digital yuan is still relatively minimal compared to China’s large population of 1.4 billion people. So far, the e-CNY has mainly been used for domestic retail payments, with some trials in Hong Kong. To promote cross-border applications, the Bank of China Hong Kong has been conducting trials for Bank of China customers at select retail stores.
