Hong Kong Financial Secretary: The first phase of the currency bridge project is expected to be launched this year

The Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Paul Chan Mo-po, mentioned the latest developments of the Digital Hong Kong Dollar and Digital Renminbi in Hong Kong when releasing the "Budget for 2024-2025". Regarding digital finance, Chan Mo-po stated that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority completed the first phase of the pilot program for "Digital Hong Kong Dollar" (i.e. "Digital Currency at Cyberport") in October last year, studying local retail use cases in multiple categories, such as programmable payments, offline payments, tokenized deposits, etc. The second phase of the pilot program is about to be launched to further study new use cases. Another key project, the "mBridge" (also known as the "Currency Bridge Project") for the cross-border network of central bank digital currencies, has also made progress, and the first phase of services is expected to be launched this year, becoming one of the first projects in the world to settle cross-border transactions of enterprises using central bank digital currencies. In addition, the trial scope of the digital renminbi will be expanded in Hong Kong, and citizens will be able to easily open and use digital renminbi wallets and add value through Hong Kong's fast retail payment system "Faster Payment System", further improving cross-border payment efficiency and user experience.