The first digital renminbi slips to provide insurance guarantees for projects in East China's Shanghai kicked off recently in Dishui Lake Financial Bay – located in the Lin-gang Special Area in Pudong – issued by the Shanghai branch of China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co Ltd.

This is reportedly the first innovation serving the national strategy of rolling out the digital RMB in Shanghai.

Piloting and promoting the application of the digital RMB is regarded as an important initiative in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for Shanghai and a critical task for Shanghai Municipal Government in the current year.

The digital RMB is being issued by the head office of the reserve bank, the People's Bank of China, under the authorization of the State Council of China, China's Cabinet. In the future, it will replace the physical yuan notes and coins to a large extent and very likely supplant current popular non-cash payment forms such as credit card payments and mobile payments.

It will also lead to the emergence of new application modes in traditional financial fields such as credit payments, supply chain financing and other financial fields.

Shanghai Lin-gang Economic Development (Group) Co Ltd and China Pacific Insurance will team up and promote the integration of the digital RMB pilot application in major construction work in the Lin-gang Special Area. Both sides will coordinate to complete the design, technology linkages and implementation of the project through investigations and communications with banking institutions.

Both sides will lead the progress of the pilot project and identify applications scenarios for the digital RMB, with the joint efforts of the Bank of China and the Bank of Communications. It is understood that this will be of great significance in building an international competitive financial development environment and promoting the construction of an international financial center in Shanghai.

China Pacific Insurance and Lingang Group are coordinating research on more utilization scenarios for the digital RMB and will steadily expand the scope of its application under the guidance of supervision agencies.