Xi Jinping urged allies to switch to digital national currencies
Date: 2023-07-05 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: IN WORLD
The Chinese authorities called on the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to increase the share of settlements in digital national currencies
China called on partners in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to quickly introduce digital national currencies into settlements between countries. This is reported by TASS with reference to the Secretary General of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping.
At the summit of the SCO heads of state, the Chinese president also called for increasing "cooperation on a sovereign digital currency." As Xi Jinping noted, China is ready to give partners access to its market and share experience in developing technological solutions.
At the time of writing, the SCO includes nine countries, including Russia and Kazakhstan. Many countries of the organization, in one way or another, are already working on their own digital currency:
In December 2022, Kazakhstan published technical documentation on digital tenge (release is expected in 2025).
In the same month, India (also a member of the SCO) introduced its version of the digital state currency. According to media reports, the country wants to reach up to a million people by the end of July with the help of a digital national currency.
China's interest in the digitalization of SCO partners may be determined by the course of the Celestial Empire itself. As of July 2023, China remains the only country that is trying in every possible way to promote the digital yuan by any means in the local market. According to media reports, Beijing is testing digital currency with might and main in educational institutions, among state employees and among retail chains.
However, despite the diligent attempts of the authorities to impose the use of digital state currency, society does not seem to be in a hurry to switch to a new currency. According to analysts at the International Monetary Fund, in 2020, Alipay and WeChat Pay accounted for up to 90% of digital payments in China. The situation hasn't changed much since then, as Alipay and WeChat Pay still accounted for about 90% of mobile payments as of 2022.
