Local news site JS China reports that senior Communist Party officials were present in the city of Suzhou on February 1 for an annual conference on testing the digital yuan central bank digital currency (e-CNY CBDC). As part of the meeting results, party officials set an interim key performance indicator (KPI) of CNY 2 trillion ($300 billion) for e-CNY CBDC transactions in the city by the end of 2023. This KPI it is intended to be implemented by municipal administrators through advocacy efforts.

The relevant authorities set a target of processing $30 billion in e-CNY loans for small and medium-sized businesses in Suzhou by the end of the year. With more than 30.54 million digital wallet downloads in 2022, the total value of e-CNY transactions in the city exceeded CNY 340 billion, which is equivalent to USD 50.5 billion. These transactions were made at 930,000 local businesses and government agencies. The total amount of e-CNY related financial incentives was CNY 40 billion ($5.9 billion), while the total amount of e-CNY loans granted was CNY 18.7 billion ($2.78 billion).

Simultaneously with the e-CNY Key Performance Indicators, local managers in Suzhou must oversee the development of at least 1,000 companies in the digital fintech sector within the city by 2025. These companies must specialize in the areas of intelligence artificial, data, cloud computing, blockchain and machine learning. Currently, there are only 371 such companies. An excerpt from the plan for the city of Suzhou reads, when translated: “By 2025, the People’s Bank of China will have established a digital asset data monitoring platform, a blockchain-powered finance and commodity exchange, a Internet of Things payment solution and a fintech lab, all of which will have produced tangible results. This would encourage the growth of the ecosystem for digital finance, which would create good synergy with the existing financial industry in the city of Suzhou.”