Residents who received "red packets" of digital RMB use the money in stores in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, on Wednesday. The city launched a pilot program to distribute 10m yuan ($1.49m) in the form of digital currency to residents on Monday.Photo:Li Hao/GT

 

Shenzhen city is conducting another round of stepped-up digital yuan test from April 10 to 23, enlarging test population by 500,000, as China leads in the global race to employ a digital currency, according to an expert.

Shenzhen's test expansion has two dimensions, as this is not the city's first time rolling out a digital yuan experimentation, Wang Peng, assistant professor of the Gaoling Academy of Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Sunday, noting that the two dimensions are to better cultivate users' habits and further test out the usage of the digital yuan by incorporating more users, scenarios and to gather more data. 

According to Wang, China has taken the lead in testing a digital currency, thanks to an early start on research and development under the guidance of the central bank, which established a solid foundation for China to develop the new technology. 

China has built a strong foundation for digital and intelligent development and formed diverse business models by employed mobile internet technology, which has also contributed to China's leading position, Wang added. 

China has carried out large-scale tests for the digital yuan since October 2020, and Shenzhen is not the only city expanding and upgrading the testing of the digital yuan. South China's Hainan Province is set to pilot a digital currency use promotion event in April. 

This time, Shenzhen upgraded its trial of the digital yuan by expanding the test population by another 500,000 from April 10 to 23, Xinhua reported on Saturday, adding that this upgrade aims to cultivate people's habits of using the digital yuan for retail consumption. 

A resident surnamed Zheng living in Shenzhen told the Global Times on Sunday that he has received a text from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Shenzhen to open a digital yuan wallet account.  

Global Times