Chinese Central Bank’s Digital Currency Unit Enters Strategic Agreement with Ridesharer DiDi Chuxing

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The digital currency research unit of the Chinese central bank has entered a strategic agreement with ridesharing giant DiDi Chuxing.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Digital Currency Research Institute has just formally executed a strategic cooperative agreement with DiDi Chuxing according to an 8 July report from PBOC’s official news site.

Under the Agreement PBOC and DiDi will “jointly research and explore scenario-based innovation and application of the digital renminbi in the smart transit area.”

The Agreement will also expedite the usage of the digital renminbi in the establishment of a “pluralised transit platform ecosystem.”

“The digital economy has already become a major engine for driving the high-quality growth of the Chinese economy,” said PBOC.

“The statutory digital currency system will become a major infrastructure for growth of the digital economy.

“In recent years PBOC has established a digital currency research institute, which has continually obtained new successes with regard to statutory digital currency R&D.”

China first com­menced re­search into the de­vel­op­ment of a CBDC in 2014, with PBOC of­fi­cials al­lud­ing to the “im­mi­nent” re­lease of a statu­tory dig­i­tal cur­rency at a press con­fer­ence in Au­gust 2019. 

PBOC announced in April 2020 that internal testing of digital currency had commenced in the cities of Shen­zhen, Suzhou, Xiong’an and Chengdu. 

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