The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) obtained $ 4.7 million in funding from the Chinese central government for its blockchain trade finance platform. The funding will be administered over three years and has been allocated to research and development projects.
The blockchain platform was originally revealed by the PBoC in Shenzhen in September 2018. The platform is intended to facilitate transfers and create an essential ledger for secure sharing of information between companies and departments.
Blockchain generates efficiency savings for the financing of Chinese companies
As of mid-January, the platform was estimated to have processed $ 12.4 billion in transactions for the 38 banks and nearly 1,900 companies that signed up to use the platform.
Chinese media Xinhua says the platform has shortened the time to process trade finance from about 10 days to just 20 minutes. The costs generated by the financing of companies executed using this platform would also have decreased by around 6%.
The platform is administered by the PBoC digital currency research laboratory, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the main Chinese universities and the main local banks.
Blockchain solutions proliferate in China
Blockchain technology has been deployed for an increasing number of applications in Chinese society in recent months.
On March 2, Beijing launched a blockchain-based electronic billing system for parking. The Beijing tax authority has said it will gradually roll out blockchain billing in all city car parks to promote paperless billing, adding that it plans to roll out blockchain billing in more sectors in the future. .
In the first half of February, Xinhua estimated that at least 20 blockchain apps were launched to help the Chinese government’s efforts to contain the coronavirus – including managing and tracking health records, medical supplies and relief.