China’s Xi Jinping urges G20 to lay groundwork for CBDC adoption

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Xi Jinping has called on G20 leaders to lay the groundwork for central bank digital currencies adoption by developing standards and principles. Xi believes this will allow these countries to handle the risks and challenges that come with the adoption of CBDCs.

China’s president was speaking during the 15th meeting of the G20 countries held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Xi told the summit that the G20 has a crucial role to play in the post-COVID-19 global rebuild, suggesting a number of measures he believes can help in achieving this.

One of these is promoting the sound development of a digital economy, Xi stated, as per a transcript made publicly available by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Chinese president called on the G20 nations to adopt people-centered policies that “encourage innovation and build trust.”

On CBDCs, he urged the G20 nations to lead the way with an open and accommodating attitude.

“The G20 also needs to discuss developing the standards and principles for central bank digital currencies with an open and accommodating attitude, and properly handle all types of risks and challenges while pushing collectively for the development of the international monetary system.”

Xi’s endorsement of CBDCs is no surprise, with China being a global leader in the field. The Asian country has been developing its digital yuan for over five years now. Better known as the digital currency electronic payment (DC/EP), the CBDC is in the late stages of its development, with the People’s Bank of China already conducting pilot tests in a number of cities.

As CoinGeek reported, Beijing is set to be the next city where the PBoC intends on testing the DC/EP. The bank is set to build a legal digital currency test zone in the capital—the biggest one to date. Other pilot tests have taken place in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Xi has in the past advocated for blockchain adoption, stating in 2019 that China was ready to embrace the technology on ‘virtually all levels.’ In early November, Xi called on China to lead the way in digital currency regulation. Despite his government clamping down on digital currencies for years, he called on China to “proactively participate in creating the international regulatory framework on digital currency and digital tax.”

To learn more about central bank digital currencies and some of the design decisions that need to be considered when creating and launching it, read nChain’s CBDC playbook.

See also: CoinGeek Live panel on The Future of Exchanges & Trading in a Tokenized World