China’s Fuzhou City Offers Incentives to Entice Blockchain Start-Ups
Administrators in Fuzhou city, the capital and one of the largest cities in China’s Fujian Province, have introduced a raft of policies aimed at enticing blockchain-centric companies to establish themselves in the city.
Monetary rewards
The measures are understood to include rent subsidies applicable to the use of commercial office space in the city, as well as the payment of cash rewards based on such start-up businesses hitting various revenue targets. The cash reward incentives are being capped at 500,000 yuan, around $71,800 US dollars, for each applicable project.
The city administrators are also offering cash rewards to institutions within the city area and local blockchain firms in cases where they attain government-issued certifications. Another category through which these entities can reap more cash rewards is in providing training services centered upon blockchain technology.
A blockchain firm basing itself within the city limits that is successful in attaining state certification reflecting its status as a national level laboratory specializing in blockchain technologies may be awarded as much as 1 million yuan ($144,000).
Rent subsidies
Three specific industrial locations are applicable where the rent subsidy is concerned. Blockchain-based businesses wanting to avail of that incentive will have access to an annual rent subsidy of up to 600,000 yuan ($86,300) for every 1,000 square meters of commercial office space that they rent.
Stepping up activity
There seems to be heightened activity related to various aspects of blockchain-related technology within China’s borders in recent months. It appears that while the country is taking the initiative with blockchain-related technology, that excludes the development of or open market use of decentralized cryptocurrencies.
China has been pursuing a policy of pushing cryptocurrency beyond its borders in recent years, to include bans on cryptocurrency exchanges and crypto miners. However, over recent months, it is allowing this segment of the overall blockchain innovation to develop within the autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong. In fact, it’s actively encouraging it. It’s quite a savvy move by the Chinese who don’t want their citizens using decentralized cryptocurrency generally but are quite happy to still participate on a global level in that sector, by having Hong Kong make efforts to become a regional crypto hub.
A second strand to its overall strategy appears to be a concerted effort to expand the user base within China of the digital yuan, its central bank digital currency (CBDC). A series of initiatives have been rolled out in an effort to bring the CBDC into active use. China remains the global leader in CBDC development, much further along in that process than its international peers.
Lastly, it’s strategically pursuing the development of blockchain-related business, just as this initiative in Fuzhou indicates. The local government initiative is not an isolated one. Last Wednesday, China’s National Blockchain Technology Innovation Center was formally launched. As far back as 2019, Beijing-based smart contract platform Trias has been assisting authorities in Fuzhou in utilizing blockchain in an effort to better manage its electrical grid infrastructure.
