China digital currency: Shenzhen lures Hong Kong tourists to use e-CNY with shopping discounts
- Hong Kong residents can now obtain a physical e-CNY card, which can be topped up using an Octopus card, at the Lo Wu border crossing
- Users can pay at stores by tapping the card on e-CNY terminals, and enjoy a 20 per cent shopping discount at more than 1,400 designated outlets
China is hoping to drive cross-border use of its sovereign digital currency by offering shopping discounts to tourists from Hong Kong who open and pay with e-CNY wallets in the southern technology hub of Shenzhen.
Hong Kong residents can now obtain a physical e-CNY card via a dedicated machine at the Lo Wu border crossing, according to a report by the state-backed Shenzhen News on Tuesday.
The card, issued by the Bank of China and marked “Greater Bay Area”, can be issued within minutes and topped up using an Octopus card – Hong Kong’s dominant cashless payments system for public transport and retail.
Users can pay at stores by tapping the card on e-CNY terminals, the report said. They can also enjoy a 20 per cent discount when shopping with e-CNY at more than 1,400 designated outlets in the Lo Wu district, which launched a pilot test of the technology in November.
At least 625 Hong Kong residents had opened an e-CNY wallet from the start of the campaign last Wednesday to Sunday, according to the report, citing data from the Shenzhen branch of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank.
The bank planned to explore “more forms of digital currency wallets”, such as integrating wallets into SIM cards so that visitors from Hong Kong can use the same card for both communications and payments, a branch official was quoted as saying.