PANews reported on May 18 that according to Jinshi, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today the launch of the Digital Hong Kong Dollar Pilot Program. 16 selected companies from the financial, payment and technology sectors will conduct the first round of trials this year to conduct in-depth research on potential use cases of the digital Hong Kong dollar in six areas, including comprehensive payment, programmable payment, offline payment, tokenized deposits, third-generation Internet (Web3) transaction settlement and tokenized asset settlement.
HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue said: “While the HKMA has not decided whether or when to launch the digital Hong Kong dollar, we are pleased to launch the Digital Hong Kong dollar Pilot Programme. This is a great opportunity for the HKMA to work with the industry to explore innovative use cases and prepare for the possible launch of the digital Hong Kong dollar in the future. We thank the industry for its active participation in the trial and look forward to the results. We are also pleased to see a number of academic experts participating in CBDC research. By facilitating collaboration between the government, industry and academia, we hope that research and development work can keep pace with the times and turn its findings into tangible business opportunities.”
