People's Bank of China (PBoC) has added a new city to its official list for fintech supervision pilots, reported a local news outlet.
Chinese central bank added Chengdu, the capital of China's Sichuan province, to this list on July 20. Many believe the addition is a clear sign of the government's aggressive approach towards emerging technologies such as cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence, and blockchain technology.
China has seen a significant surge in the development and adoption of blockchain technology post-President Xi Jinping's call for accelerated adoption. Along with this adoption, China is already running several pilot programs to test its long-awaited national digital currency payment system or digital Yuan. The government has previously partnered with various private and public sector enterprises to test run the digital currency.
The addition of a new city would be a big boon for the testing capacity of many of these emerging technologies. The modern city would be a hub for big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and blockchain technologies, where the city is already developing several regulatory sandboxes to enhance the local financial regulations to accommodate the pilot projects.
Regulatory sandboxes are fintech innovation supervision where the authorities look to find a way to harness these technologies to drive financial innovations and improve the quality of services. These regulatory sandboxes help local authorities to understand these technologies better and help them comply with laws, regulations, and control risks.
The People's Bank of China first launched its pilot program back in 2019, and since then the scope of fintech programs has been expanded to 9 regions in the country which include:
- Beijing
- Shanghai
- Chongqing
- Shenzhen
- Xiongan New District
- Hangzhou
- Suzhou
- Guangzhou
- Chengdu
The release date of the Chinese national digital currency is still unknown, but the first few pilot programs have given desired outcomes. Given China's aggressive approach towards emerging technologies and the growing impact of blockchain, China is leveraging its aggression to become the superpower of the East.