“Bank of China launched its first fintech innovation regulatory pilot project in Beijing last year. The bank announced plans to expand its regulatory pilot projects in six more cities and districts on April 27.
The bank plans to conduct pilot projects in Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Hebei Xiong’an New District, Hangzhou and Suzhou. Ultimately, it aims to improve the financial services in general for the real economy.”
Read the full article @ Cointelegraph:
“Milestone for world’s biggest central banks in path toward launching electronic payment system. China’s central bank has introduced a homegrown digital currency across four cities as part of a pilot program, marking a milestone on the path toward the first electronic payment system by a major central bank.”
Read the full article @ Wall Street Journal:
“Just a few months since China’s president Xi Jinping announced blockchain as one of the country’s technological priorities and advocated to “seize the opportunity”, there has been a lot of progress on the main blockchain initiatives and most of them will be in production very soon.
The ultimate goal is to enable and establish the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and large Chinese enterprises like Tencent, Huawei, Baidu and Ant Financial as the world leaders in new-breed payments infrastructure with unique features, to undermine the significance of the U.S. dollar as a global trade currency with the launch of Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) and to establish Chinese blockchain technical standards which will help adopt and scale the technology faster.”
Read the full article @ Forbes:
“The notion of a national team is usually associated with sports teams representing the nation on the global stage for a shot at glory. These days, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) developments all the rage, nations are creating national teams for the race towards AI superiority. Amidst all the hype that one is exposed to in the media over the possible doomsday scenario about how AI could ruin our lives, governments and businesses across the globe are rapidly positioning themselves to ride the next wave of change.
In 2017, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) handpicked 4 of its technology giants, forming a ‘national team’ to lead the way in building open innovation platforms that are accessible through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This initiative was created to foster participation and hence innovation in sectors that will increasingly be powered by AI technologies in an effort to support the entrepreneurship of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This national team is expected to contribute in areas such as research and development, sharing data, open source software and ecosystem participation. Moreover, MOST is very supportive in encouraging the deployment of these technologies at the provincial level. This includes providing resources and access to city infrastructure to allow for proof of concepts to scale. (DigiChina, 2019)”
Read the full article @ SMU Artificial Intelligence Club on Medium:
“China’s much anticipated Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) will start pilot testing this month, according to local outlet Caijing. The first firms involved are the four major state-owned banks, the three big telecoms companies and Huawei, which recently signed a cloud deal with the People’s Bank of China.
According to Fan Yifei, the deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the currency has completed its top-level design, formulation, functional research and testing. The next step is to launch pilots, which are planned for Shenzhen and Suzhou.
The currency is referred to as the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP). That’s in part because it is a two-tier currency, where the first part involves the commercial banks converting some of their central bank deposits into digital currency. And the banks then distribute this digital currency to consumers. The process is intended to mirror the way physical cash is distributed.
The four state-owned banks involved are the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, and Bank of China. And the three telecoms companies are China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom.”
Read the full article @ Ledger Insights:
“The new Silk Road is arguably the largest infrastructure project in China’s history. Everyone should benefit from it, says Beijing. But a ZDF report shows something else.”
Watch the full documentary (in German) @ ZDF – Part 1:
Part 2:
Splendris International Limited, an affiliate of Shenzhen Salubris Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd. (Salubris), a multi-national leader in the development and commercialization of cardiovascular products in China and beyond, today announced a strategic investment and in-licensing agreement with Swiss cardiovascular pioneer M.A. MedAlliance S.A. (MedAlliance). Under the terms of the agreement, Salubris will make a $20 million equity investment in MedAlliance and will commit an additional $10 million in developmental milestones in exchange for exclusive rights to develop and commercialize MedAlliance’s lead investigational product Selution, a potential best-in-class sirolimus micro-reservoir drug-coated balloon (DCB), for peripheral and cardiovascular applications in the Chinese market. MedAlliance will also be eligible for royalty payments on sales.
@ Business Wire | May 21, 2018
