Beijing will ascribe all of its residents and companies with "personal trustworthiness points" within three years, as part of China's plan to use technology to monitor its population more closely.

The government of China’s capital city, which has a population of nearly 22m people, will use the score to help build a national social credit system designed to reward or punish citizens, according to state media.

The controversial scheme, first announced by the ruling Chinese Communist Party in 2014, will use digital monitoring techniques to measure individual's financial credit, personal behaviour and corporate mismanagement.

The Beijing government said the points system will improve the city's business environment by preventing people with low “integrity” from accessing the city’s public services and travel networks. People with a low credit score could also find it difficult to start a businesses or find work.

People who are blacklisted by the points system will be "unable to move a step" while those considered trustworthy will have no problem.

"This is an important novel approach by Beijing to assess individuals' credit and tie it to their whole life," a spokesperson for the Beijing government said, according to the Xinhua news agency.

The city authorities did not reveal details of how the point system would work. It will, however, set an example for the rest of China on how to improve the behaviour of individuals and businesses, reports said.