Overview
• The city of Suzhou, in China, has unveiled a plan to encourage citizens and businesses to transact with the digital yuan token.
• By 2025, they hope to increase their cumulative transactions volume sixfold.
• The city also plans to process $30 billion worth of digital yuan-powered loans for small- and medium-sized enterprises by the end of the year.
Digital Yuan Adoption Drive
The city of Suzhou is one of the most populous and wealthiest cities in China, and has recently launched an adoption drive encouraging its residents and local firms to use the central bank’s digital yuan token. According to Shanghai Securities News, the city has unveiled a new plan for its digital yuan adoption drive that includes several goals which it hopes to meet by 2025. To implement this plan, over 30 million people have already downloaded e-CNY wallets in 2022, with almost a million Suzhou-based companies and government organs accepting digital yuan payments as well.
Goals for Digital Yuan Transactions
The plan includes several ambitious goals related to increasing digital yuan usage within the city limits. For example, the city hopes that its citizens will transact a cumulative total of around $297 billion worth of the central bank’s digital yuan token this year – an increase from last year’s total transaction volume of around $50.5 billion. This would be achieved through increasing both individual as well as company usage throughout 2021. Additionally, they want to provide some $30 billion worth of digital currency-powered loans for small- and medium-sized enterprises before the end of 2021.
Fostering Blockchain Technology & Web 3 Credentials
To facilitate these goals further, Suzhou aims to foster startups specialized in blockchain technology and related fields such as digital finance. At present fewer than 400 local firms specialize in these areas but they hope that by 2025 this number will increase up to 1,000 startups across different regions throughout China as well as promote web3 credentials across all sectors involved in these transactions.
Other Chinese Cities Set Ambitious Targets
Not only is Suzhou attempting to increase their usage but other cities throughout China are setting ambitious targets for themselves as well when it comes to digital yuan adoption drives such as Changsha claiming that over 300 thousand stores now accept payment via this currency or Wuhan being named a possible candidate for inclusion into pilot zones soon among others .