Civil servants and employees of government-affiliated institutions and State-owned companies in Changshu, Jiangsu province, will receive their salaries in digital yuan, or e-CNY, starting in May.

Changshu, a county-level city of Suzhou, began a pilot program using digital yuan last year. The payments have been accepted in many places in the city.

As one of the first pilot cities for digital yuan announced by the People's Bank of China in April 2020 (along with Shenzhen, Chengdu and Xiongan), Suzhou has rolled out many measures to boost the use of e-CNY.

Besides Changshu, some other county-level cities and districts have already paid the salaries of government employees in digital yuan.

From January to March, there were more than 8 million transactions using digital yuan in Suzhou, with the total transaction volume reaching 170.5 billion yuan ($24.7 billion).

Under a plan issued by Suzhou in February, digital yuan transactions are expected to reach 2 trillion yuan this year.

Some cities in Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces have also made detailed plans to boost the use of digital yuan, especially in loan financing. They are encouraging the use of digital yuan for ordinary consumption.