The Central Bank of the UAE(CBUAE) says it will complete the first phase of its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) strategy by the middle of next year.
The bank has partnered with regional cloud platform G42 Cloud and blockchain company R3 in New York as the infrastructure and technology providers on the project.
“The first phase of the CBUAE’s CBDC (The Digital Dirham) is expected to be completed over the next 12 to 15 months and will include three major pillars.
“The first pillar is the soft launch of the ongoing project mBridge, a collaboration between the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the central banks of Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand to study cross-border payments and multi-CBDC transactions.
“The second pillar is proof-of-concept work for a bilateral CBDC bridge with India and the third is proof-of-concept work for a domestic wholesale and retail CBDC, the plans for which were first announced last month, ”
“The third pillar is proof-of-concept work for a domestic wholesale and retail CBDC, whose ideas were initially revealed last month. The second pillar is proof-of-concept work for a bilateral CBDC bridge with India, Yahoo finance reported.
The issuance of a CBDC by the CBUAE has been identified om the country’s 2023-2026 roadmap, which seeks to revolutionize the country’s financial sector by implementing digital transformation with the use of advanced technologies.