The Chinese authorities may soon move on to working out the issue of creating a single pan-Asian cryptocurrency, which should reduce the region's dependence on the dollar and become an analogue of the reserve currency of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Asian countries. At the moment, economists and scientists from the State Institute of World Economy and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences are studying the possibility of creating such a currency, writes the South China Morning Post, citing a draft study.
The new cryptocurrency should work like the IMF reserve currency, we are talking about special drawing rights (SDRs), which are formed on the basis of a basket of reserve currencies, which include: the US dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen, the British pound, the Chinese yuan, the Canadian and Australian dollars and the Swiss franc. Chinese scholars suggest using the currencies of 13 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including the yuan, yen and South Korean won, in a similar way. Scientists believe that the creation of such a token will reduce the dependence of the region on the US dollar, which currently remains the hegemon of trade in the region.
“More than 20 years of deepening economic integration in East Asia have laid a good foundation for regional monetary cooperation. Gradually, the conditions for the creation of an Asian currency were formed, ”the publication quotes the words of researchers Song Shuang, Liu Dongmin and Zhou Xuezhi.
Blockchain technology will allow a single cryptocurrency not to slide into the dominance of one of those currencies that will underlie it, the researchers are convinced. The seriousness of the intentions of the proposal, according to the publication, is demonstrated by the fact that representatives of the state university are dealing with this issue, and the results of the research were published in the journal World Affairs, which is published through the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
As one of the arguments why the region needs a single cryptocurrency right now, researchers cite the high volatility of stock markets against the backdrop of higher rates by the US Federal Reserve System (FRS), which leads to a strengthening dollar and a fall in regional currencies. Such movements undermine the financial stability of the region and negatively affect trade.
The creation of a state cryptocurrency for China is not new, at the moment the People's Bank of China continues to test the electronic yuan or e-CNY, which is accepted in some cities for various transactions. The experiment is not over yet, but it has already been expanded to 23 major cities, where more than 5.6 million business representatives are ready to receive the electronic yuan. At the moment, the Chinese authorities are looking for ways to extrapolate experience to cross-border trade, the publication names the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Thailand and Hong Kong as potential partners.