China digital currency: Jiangsu city leverages logistics hub status to promote e-CNY in Belt and Road trade

Xuzhou, the starting point of many Europe-bound freight trains from China, has published a plan that promotes the Chinese digital currency, including its usage in cross-border trade

The e-CNY will be used to pay for services and storage charges for goods carried by the cross-border trains with a plan to extend its usage to paying for taxes and utility services in the city

Reading Time:2 minutes

A view of the XCMG Port Machinery factory in Xuzhou, a major city in eastern China's Jiangsu province. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 6:48pm, 24 Apr 2023Updated: 10:02pm, 24 Apr 2023

A city in eastern China's Jiangsu province plans to use the mainland's sovereign digital currency in cross-border trade with Belt and Road countries, as local governments warm up to the electronic money known as the e-CNY.

Xuzhou, the starting point of many Europe-bound freight trains from China, has published a plan that promotes the e-CNY, including its usage in cross-border trade. The city has 18 regular cross-border railway lines to 21 countries in Europe and Asia.

The Xuzhou municipal government said the e-CNY can be used to “better support the Belt and Road Initiative”, referring to Beijing’s trade and investment push. Initially, the e-CNY will be used to pay for services and storage charges for the goods to be carried by the trains.

In future, the e-CNY will also be used to pay for taxes and utility services in Xuzhou, according to the plan.

A staff member shows the payment with China’s digital yuan, or the e-CNY. Photo: Xinhua

Changshu, another city in Jiangsu, went a step further in promoting the usage of the e-CNY. Starting next month, Changshu, which is under jurisdiction of Suzhou, will pay civil servants and people who work for public institutions using digital yuan, according to the state-run Shanghai Securities Journal.