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Taiwan to Debut Central Bank Digital Currency by September

The island nation is looking to complete trials of its prototype Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) by the third quarter of this year. Its most recent design is a two-tier system that allows consumers to exchange bank deposits with digital currency. In addition, the CBDC can also be linked to credit and debit cards and will be legal tender.

Such a multi-channel approach in creating a digital currency has been lauded as necessary by industry stalwarts. The chairman of one of Taiwan’s biggest banks observed that people don’t want a single channel digital currency because it will be troublesome if there is a problem with that one channel. He further stressed that in the whole financial system there exist multiple channels.

Indeed, a central bank digital currency is one digital transformation that is is being keenly pursued by the banking and financial services domain. Many of the world’s biggest economies are moving to make the most of digital currencies. Taiwan confirmed that its CBDC development is taking the lead of the United States, Europe, Japan and Korea.

In a recent announcement, European Union Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness, announced plans to introduce a bill creating a digital euro next year. Based on current experiments, an EU CBDC could be in use in the public sphere as soon as 2025. The EU has been looking forward to a CBDC for several years. Notably, European Central Bank (ECB) President, Christine Lagarde, announced last July that the bank had “decided to move up a gear and start the investigation phase of the digital euro project.”

The Federal Reserve of the U.S. is taking its first steps towards a digital dollar while China is already in the final stages of its Digital Yuan. The drivers for China’s CBDC stems from the dramatic decline in cash usage, not to mention the concerns of having private monopolies control retail payment systems. In contrast, Taiwan’s economy has plenty of cash in circulation.

It’s vital to know that no CBDC will function exactly like the other. Much like any policy or government initiative, each nation will have its own way of distributing, governing and structuring what the digital currency can or cannot do.

Technically, there are also two classifications for CBDCs: (1) retail, focused on the general public with everyday applications, and (2) wholesale, aimed at facilitating transactions and settlements between financial institutions who hold funds in central banks.

And rightly so. CBDCs are actual central bank-issued money themselves and are not just digital representations of money. Thus, they can easily be transferable between entities and carry the same value in third-party wallets or platforms. As such, they can be stored in digital wallets and citizens can use them wherever they go. In short, CBDCs spell a lot of conveniences.

Certainly, a CBDC can be a great leap forward for Taiwan in its journey towards digital transformation. Already, a lot of digital innovations are in the offing for the island nation, including a digital upgrade of its healthcare system.

Recently, a manufacturer inked a deal with the government sector to build digital healthcare devices and develop a digital health ecosystem, as reported on OpenGov Asia. The company is set to make Taiwan the launching pad of its plans to introduce such advanced digital technology to the rest of Southeast Asia. So, Taiwanese will have a taste of the best digital healthcare can offer firsthand.

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Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

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CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

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Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

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SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

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HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

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IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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