The Sichuan province capital of Chengdu has just seen the first use in China of a digital renminbi-based smart contract to make payments to rural residents.
Chengdu financial authorities said that Huachuan Group (华川集团) had used the digital renminbi smart contracts to successfully make payments of special rural household funds to six rural village residents in the Chongzhou area.
“This marks the first successful issuance in China of rural household special funds in the digital renminbi using a smart contract, as part of the rural village revitalisation campaign,” said authorities.
Huachuan Group is a key player in Chengdu’s implementation of the nationwide rural village revitalisation strategy, dispensing over one million yuan each year in rural household special funds.
ICBC’s Chengdu branch was responsible for providing the smart contract to Huachuan Group, by means its exclusive online smart contract platform. The bank drafted the fund release rules, providing remuneration to the villagers in the Chongzhou village of Qingqiao for crop planting services.
When the village collective received the special funds, it was only able to allocate designated funds to designated rural households in accordance with the rules of the services contract.
“This digital renminbi smart contract is an innovation for Chengdu to use the digital renminbi to drive rural village revitalisation,” said a Chengdu official.
“The goal is to further strengthen the regulation of rural household special funds, and resolve the problems of traditional funds issuance with respect to large volumes of work, complex auditing, and tracing difficulty.
“At present the digital renminbi smart contract is still in the trial phase. The next step will be for Chengdu to actively explore the use of the smart contract for special fiscal funds, and to make payments to rural workers.”
