China to pilot digital yuan in more cities

BEIJING - China's central bank announced Saturday that its digital yuan pilot program will be expanded to more domestic cities following its successful operation over the past years.

The digital fiat currency, or e-CNY, will be accessible in Tianjin and Chongqing municipalities, Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong province, Fuzhou and Xiamen in east China's Fujian province, and six cities in east China's Zhejiang province hosting the 2022 Asian Games, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement.

The country has tested the use of the digital yuan in over 10 places from Shenzhen to Shanghai and Xiong'an New Area. Most recently, Beijing and Zhangjiakou were included into the program after tests in the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

A number of application modes have taken shape in wholesale and retail, catering, tourism and payment of administrative fees, which cover both online and offline scenarios and can be replicated and promoted, according to a PBOC meeting on Thursday.

Digital yuan transactions in China amounted to nearly 87.57 billion yuan (13.78 billion US dollars) by the end of 2021.