The central authorities are supporting Shenzhen to pursue new applications of the digital renminbi and mobile payments. The city was earmarked by the country’s central bank as one of the four cities to pilot the use of digital renminbi from April 2020.

As a district strong in finance, Luohu was among the first in Shenzhen piloting the use of digital renminbi, and regarded this as its duty as a trailblazer in the country’s reform and opening-up.

On Oct 9, 2020, a total of 10 million yuan in digital form was distributed to 50,000 residents through a lot drawing system as a subsidy for consumption.

Nine days later, not only had 8.77 million yuan in digital form been spent through the program, but also the consumers put another 901,000 yuan into their digital renminbi wallets.

According to the Luohu commerce bureau, after that many places piloting the digital renminbi programs copied the district’s model for using digital renminbi to promote consumption

The CPC Luohu district committee and the Luohu district government are encouraging their staff members to take the lead to use digital renminbi.

On Oct 26, 2020, Luohu paid its subsidy to promote industrial upgrading and restructuring with digital renminbi for the first time, and so far the amount has reached nearly 20 million yuan.

On Oct 28, 2020, Luohu paid for a special national debt program tailored for the COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control with 10 million yuan in digital renminbi.

This approach is improving the efficiency of the turnover of capital, saves transaction costs and enhances financial security.

On April 10 this year, with the support of the Shenzhen branch of the People’s Bank of China, Luohu released another 10 million yuan in digital renminbi through apps to promote consumption.

The effects of the activity are self-evident. The number of digital renminbi users in Shenzhen has expanded to half a million, the number of businesses that accept it has surged to more than 30,000, and the number of digital renminbi wallets in use in Shenzhen has increased by nearly 600,000, and more than 40 million yuan has been spent in digital form through the activity.

Many attribute the success of these pilot programs to Luohu’s developed commercial and financial industries.

The added value of Luohu’s financial sector accounted for nearly a quarter of that of Shenzhen, and 33.85% of the district’s gross domestic product in 2019, when the total retail sales of consumer goods ranked second among all districts in Shenzhen.

With 7.9% of the city’s population, Luohu contributed 14.1% of the city’s consumption in that year.