Enterprise technology and services firm R3 has established an official presence in Hong Kong, opening its “Innovation Lab” at Cyberport. Cyberport has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with R3 to provide Hong Kong’s financial services and FinTech sectors with blockchain technology innovation resources relating to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).The collaboration will bring R3’s suite of trust technology – Corda, its distributed ledger platform, and Conclave, its confidential computing platforms, closer to Hong Kong’s FinTech start-ups and enterprises to support the creation of next-generation software applications based on digital trust technologies. This partnership is the latest in a string of CBDC-focused initiatives that R3 has undertaken which include the Bank of Thailand’s Project Inthanon.
The two parties, via R3 Sandbox for Digital Currencies will launch a series of blockchain training programme for technical developers later this year to help all companies within the Cyberport community to seize the transformative opportunities offered by blockchain and CBDCs, as outlined within the FinTech Vision 2025 by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Through R3’s Digital Currency Sandbox, companies can experiment with CBDCs and interact with a global and a diverse pool of participants to explore how they could incorporate certain forms of CBDCs development within their own businesses.
As part of the launch of the “R3 Innovation Lab”, R3 is proud to welcome several high-profile technology partners including Red Date Technology which drives the global Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), HK’s home-grown technology transformative giant Cherrypicks, and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in joining the lab as the inaugural “Innovation Partners” to foster collaborations in co-researching and co-creating possible new technology solutions based on blockchain and confidential computing.
Peter Yan, Chief Executive Officer of Cyberport, said, “The Central Government has been striving to promote e-CNY. By the end of last year, the usage of e-CNY had reached 87.5 billion yuan of transactions with 261 million individual wallets set up. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is actively studying CBDC payment and settlement in Hong Kong to help promote mutual access in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and support the consolidation of Hong Kong’s status as a global offshore RMB business hub. CBDC will drive demand for blockchain applications and create a huge opportunity.
Amit Ghosh, Chief Information & Services Officer for R3 said, “The advent of the CBDC will reshape the financial industry. Both central banks and financial institutions will need to build new systems, and even review the financial system’s operating processes. The related financial innovation cannot rely solely on promotion by the government and the financial industry.
