More Chinese cities pay salaries in digital yuan

(ECNS) -- Changshu City in east China's Jiangsu Province will start paying salaries of all civil servants and state-owned units in digital RMB from May, Shanghai Securities News reported on Saturday, citing the local financial supervisory authority and financial bureau.

Such attempts have already been made in multiple cities since last year.

According to the public WeChat account "Taicang Finance", all employees in 59 municipal-level departments, eight district and town administrative institutions, and state-owned enterprises in Taicang City of Jiangsu Province have been paid in digital RMB since July 2022.

Domestic media reports that in March 2022, 64 high-level talents in key industries in Xiangcheng District of Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province received talent subsidies totaling 235,000 yuan ($33980.65) paid in digital RMB. In June of the same year, the employees in Taihu New Town of Wujiang District received their first digital RMB salary of 200 yuan.

Besides, in February 2023, the Shandong Branch of China's Bank of Communications launched the first digital RMB salary payment service for a municipal-level state-owned enterprise in Jinan City.

In August 2022, Ningbo City of Zhejiang Province paid the first batch of digital RMB salaries for administrative institutions, with 557 employees from five administrative institutions, including the Cixi City Financial Bureau and the Financial Development Service Center, receiving partial salaries for July in digital RMB.

Dong Ximiao, chief researcher at Merchants Union Consumer Finance Co, told China News Network that distributing salaries to public servants in digital RMB will help transform public perceptions, cultivate usage habits, and promote the application of digital RMB. In the future, there may be more places using digital RMB to distribute salaries.