The digital renminbi is playing a positive role in accurately stimulating the consumption potential of residents.

After the expansion of the digital renminbi pilot program on March 31 this year, the newly included third batch of pilot cities are actively using the digital renminbi to enhance the "gravity" of consumption, and a new round of digital renminbi consumer coupons activities are being carried out in many places.

　　Digital coupons to promote consumption

　　Since the beginning of this year, the distribution of digital renminbi consumer coupons has become one of the measures to promote consumption in many digital renminbi pilot areas.

Especially since the release of the third batch of pilot cities for digital renminbi, the newly included cities have also actively used digital renminbi consumer coupons to enhance consumption "gravity" recently.

　　At the end of March this year, the digital renminbi pilot has expanded from the original "10+1" pilot area to 23 areas in 15 provinces and cities, adding Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangdong, Guangzhou, Fujian, Fuzhou and Xiamen, as well as Zhejiang Hangzhou, Ningbo and Wenzhou. , Huzhou, Shaoxing, Jinhua, Beijing and Zhangjiakou in Hebei will also be converted to pilot areas after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics scenarios are completed.

According to incomplete statistics, since June, Xiamen, Jinhua, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing and other places have launched various forms of digital RMB consumption promotion activities.

　　From July 31st to August 25th, the West Lake District of Hangzhou, Zhejiang carried out the "West Lake Encountered Digital Life" summer consumption promotion activity, and distributed two rounds of digital RMB red envelopes through the Alipay APP.

From August 13th to September 30th, Shaoxing will also distribute 50 million yuan of digital RMB red envelopes.

In the issuance of digital RMB consumer coupons, the Internet platform has become an important carrier.

Li Yan, head of Ant Group's digital RMB project, introduced to the Economic Daily reporter that at the end of 2017, Ant Group participated in the research and development of the digital RMB system, and the MYbank launched by Ant is one of the digital RMB operating agencies.

In May of this year, Alipay launched the digital RMB search function, which supports one-stop digital RMB payment, transfer and bank card management functions.

As of now, about 7 million digital RMB sub-wallets have been pushed to merchants served by Alipay.

Next, Alipay will work with partners to expand more consumption scenarios.

　　"The technical characteristics of digital renminbi, especially the application of smart contract technology, are conducive to the precise promotion of consumption." Zhou Maohua, a macro researcher of the Financial Market Department of China Everbright Bank, believes that the combination of digital renminbi with consumer coupons, e-commerce platforms and other scenarios will help the promotion of digital renminbi , but also help the consumer market to accelerate the recovery.

Statistics from the People's Bank of China show that as of May 31 this year, the number of digital RMB transactions in the pilot areas of 15 provinces and cities was about 264 million, with an amount of about 83 billion yuan, and the number of merchant stores supporting digital RMB payment reached 456.7. Thousands.

　　Give full play to special functions to stimulate consumption potential

　　In recent times, while giving full play to the characteristic functions of digital renminbi and issuing digital renminbi consumer coupons, localities have combined digital renminbi consumption promotion activities with digital consumer coupon distribution activities, and adopted government guidance, digital upgrades of merchants, and platform assistance. mode, and jointly promote consumption recovery.

　　Various localities have combined digital RMB consumption promotion activities with online consumption coupon distribution activities, and adopted a model of government guidance, digital upgrades of merchants, and platform assistance to jointly promote consumption recovery.

For example, on July 15, under the guidance of the bureaus of commerce in Beijing, Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Nanchang, Wuhan and other places, the merchants of "Hundreds of Thousands of Stores" and Alipay launched the "Summer Consumer Festival" and established the "main venue" online. , the platform not only opens up 1 billion-level traffic for merchants, but also provides subsidies for “payment red envelopes” and red envelopes for consumption in four major scenarios of travel, catering, fast-moving consumer goods, and takeaway.

Offline, red envelope codes, consumer coupons, etc. are used to further enhance consumption power.

During the "Summer Consumer Festival", the 26 food street night snack markets in Wuhan fully recovered. The consumption of wedding banquets increased by 22% compared with the same period of last year, and the consumption of popular catering increased by 15% compared with the same period of last year.

The ongoing Shanghai "May 5th Shopping Festival" has also issued digital RMB consumer coupons and digital consumer coupons through the Internet platform, which has adopted an online and offline integration method to stimulate people's enthusiasm for consumption.

Alipay data shows that in July, the number of offline consumption transactions in Beijing, Shanghai, and Zhengzhou increased by 31%, 20%, and 30%, respectively, compared with June.

　　Industry experts believe that special functions such as digital renminbi smart contracts should be further utilized to play an active role in safeguarding people's livelihood, promoting consumption, expanding domestic demand, and stabilizing growth.

Zhou Maohua said that payment institutions and Internet companies with rich consumption scenarios have important functions such as platform building, scenario implementation, merchant development, and providing digital renminbi solutions. They should further stimulate the enthusiasm and creativity of all participants and further guide large-scale Internet platforms. Participate in the pilot to help the digital renminbi play a greater role in protecting people's livelihood and promoting consumption.

　　At the same time, the key node role of the platform should be better played.

"The platform is the support point and intermediary connecting the government and businesses, and it plays an important role in promoting consumption," said Wu Xianming, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Wuhan University.

Life service Internet platforms are connected to many consumption scenarios that are close to people's daily lives, and their potential value in boosting consumption and serving merchants should be fully tapped.

Wu Xianming said, taking the "Summer Consumer Festival" as an example, such activities have given businesses a certain amount of support.

Next, the platform should also be deeply embedded in the value chain of merchants, and continue to help small and medium-sized merchants reduce costs and improve efficiency.

For example, in order to accelerate the digital transformation of small and micro enterprises, Alipay has launched a digital ecological incentive plan of 10 billion capital resources across the country to help merchants reduce costs and increase efficiency through financial support, traffic subsidies, and preferential rates.

　　Zhang Xianhua, president of Wuhan Chamber of Commerce, believes that businesses should also seize the opportunity and speed up the pace of transformation.

"Under the current circumstances, enterprises need to keep up with market trends and innovate and break through to explore digital operation models on the premise of doing well in their main business." He said, for example, through cooperation with Internet platforms, the advantages of online channels for customer acquisition, etc. In this way, online and offline linkages will be strengthened to jointly promote consumption recovery.

　　The supporting construction is gradually accelerated and improved

　　Judging from the pilot situation in the early stage, digital RMB has formed a large number of online and offline, replicable and popularized application models in the fields of wholesale and retail, catering, cultural tourism, education and medical care, and public services. provided a new impetus for development.

With the deepening of the digital renminbi pilot, industry experts believe that supporting construction should be further strengthened.

In the next step, on the basis of steadily expanding the scope of the pilot program, we will deepen the pilot use in scenarios such as retail transactions, living expenses, and government services.

At the same time, give full play to the enthusiasm and creativity of participants from all walks of life, and explore a sustainable development model in which social entities participate together and compete for the best.

　　Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of China Merchants Union Finance, said that digital renminbi will help boost residents' willingness to consume, promote consumption growth, improve consumption structure, and expand domestic demand.

It is recommended to continue to expand the pilot application of digital renminbi in a steady and orderly manner, including encouraging multi-subject participation, realizing multi-scenario coverage, expanding multi-functional applications, and strengthening multi-channel publicity, especially to allow more regions to join the digital renminbi pilot as soon as possible.

At the same time, it is necessary to improve the legal system related to the digital renminbi, actively and steadily strengthen international exchanges and cooperation, and participate in the global governance of digital finance.

　　"We must adhere to the people-centered approach, and do a good job in the construction of products, services and scenarios." Fan Yifei, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said that it is necessary to give full play to the digital renminbi's characteristics of both accounts, quasi-accounts and value, as well as relatively low cost and instant payment. Settlement, programmable and other features, build a multi-level product and service system, and promote the deep integration and mutual promotion of corporate business and personal business.

Support the provision of convenient fund management, salary payment, invoicing and other services for small, medium and micro enterprises, and practice the concept of benefiting enterprises and the people.

　　To steadily promote the development of the digital renminbi, we must adhere to market-oriented development and encourage all parties to cooperate and win-win.

Fan Yifei emphasized that under the premise of adhering to the central bank's centralized management and compliance with laws and regulations, the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources should be brought into full play, and market players should be encouraged to carry out promotion activities independently.

Promote the co-construction and sharing of the whole society, use smart contracts to realize programmable features, create an open source ecological platform, and build an open ecosystem for digital RMB.

Fully mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties, increase resource input, and promote the construction of the acceptance environment to improve quality and efficiency.

Support the competition and selection of the best among institutions, encourage compatibility, and promote the formation of a balanced mechanism that is conducive to the sustainable development of the industry.

At the same time, consolidate the legal and regulatory foundation for the development of digital renminbi.

Research and introduce relevant laws and regulations and industry supporting policies for digital renminbi, continue to improve the technical standards of digital renminbi, consolidate the legal foundation of digital renminbi, and consolidate the legal compensation status of digital renminbi.

　　In terms of privacy protection that consumers are concerned about, the digital renminbi attaches great importance to customer privacy protection, follows the principle of "anonymity for small amounts, traceability of large amounts in accordance with the law", and fully protects the public's reasonable personal information protection needs.

According to Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, the digital renminbi follows the principle of "minimum and necessary" when collecting personal information, and the amount of information collected is less than existing electronic payment tools.

At present, relevant departments are working on the establishment of an information isolation mechanism to clarify the independence of operating agencies to carry out digital renminbi operations, and to regulate the use of digital renminbi customer information by establishing a digital renminbi customer information isolation mechanism and usage restrictions.

Chen Guojing