Shenzhen Continues to lead China's opening-up --This time on blockchain and cryptocurrency

Shenzhen City, in south China's Guangdong Province, is one of the country's five special economic zones (SEZ) benefiting from preferential policies, and it has the third largest economy in China, only after Shanghai and Beijing.

Today, again it stands firmly in the front line of China's financial reform and innovation--- Shenzhen Municipal government has just announced their support on Fintech innovation, while blockchain and digital currency were mentioned in the announcement.

link to the original article(In Chinese)

It's said that special award will be created to reward the innovation on Fintech, including blockchain, digital currency, big data financial application, etc.. and the biggest prize will be over 6 million CNY per year.

This announcement is considered as an important move and a good sign, after the central government announced the ban on bitcoin/CNY trade and the regulation on exchanges. In history, Shenzhen was always a pilot city for many new policies. People are guessing that the ban on bitcoin and exchange will loose eventually, probably after the central government finalize the detailed regulation policy.

深圳再一次站在了开放和改革的前沿---深圳政府刚刚发布了《深圳市扶持金融业发展若干措施》，其中特别提到了对金融科技的支持，区块链和数字货币名列其中。在全国对虚拟币和交易所监管的今天，深圳政府敢站出来发布这个文件，其实意义比较大。之前有谣言说后面政府会通过发放牌照来逐步放开几家国内交易所，看来未必是空穴来风。

以下为引用政府原文内容：
《若干措施》共分五大项，33条。内容包括：坚持服务导向，优化金融政策环境；发展金融总部经济，鼓励金融总部企业做大做强；支持金融企业分支机构落户布局，鼓励精细化发展；规范发展新兴金融业态，丰富金融市场层级；培育引进创新型金融机构，完善配套金融支持体系。

值得注意的是，《若干措施》提到，充分发挥“金融创新奖和金融科技专项奖”的创新激励作用。其中，金融创新奖每年对金融产品和服务创新活动成果显著的金融企业、金融监管机构及有关人员给予表彰和奖励，年度奖金总额控制在1950万元以内；设立金融科技（Fintech）专项奖，重点奖励在区块链、数字货币、金融大数据运用等领域的优秀项目，年度奖励额度控制在600万元以内。