Tech giant Tencent has entered a new agreement with the tax authorities of Shenzhen to further advance collaboration in the area of blockchain applications.
On 1 September Tencent announced that it had executed a “Smart Tax Innovation Laboratory Blockchain Application Cooperative Framework Agreement” (智税”创新实验室区块链应用协作框架协议) with the Shenzhen municipal tax authorities.
The Agreement outlines the “comprehensive upgrade of cooperation in the ‘blockchain + taxation’ applications area,” following the joint establishment of the Smart Tax Innovation Laboratory (“智税”创新实验室) by Tencent and the Shenzhen municipal tax authorities two years ago.
The Agreement focuses in particular on “four main goals” for deepening blockchain and tax cooperation including:
- Expanding the depth and breadth of blockchain electronic fapiao (invoice) applications;
- Shoring up the leading advantage of blockchain technology;
- Driving the innovative deployment of more blockchain technologies to tax-related operations;
- Joint creation of a “Tax-Industry” consortium blockchain ecosystem to drive the growth of the real economy.
Tencent has long engaged in collaboration with the Shenzhen government on the application of blockchain technology to municipal governance.
Tencent and Shenzhen’s tax department first launched the Smart Tax Innovation Laboratory in May 2018, for the application of a range of new technologies to municipal tax operations, including the blockchain, cloud computing and big data.
The two parties were subsequently responsible for launching China’s first blockchain-based electronic “fapiao” invoice service in August 2018, at a restaurant in Shenzhen’s Guomao Building (深圳国贸大厦).
In March 2019 Shenzhen applied Tencent’s blockchain-based electronic invoicing system to the city’s underground metro system, while in October of the same year Tencent and the Shenzhen tax authorities announced that they were were leading the drafting of the global “General Framework of DLT-Based Invoices.”
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