**🚀 Qatar Launches Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Project!**
The Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has initiated the first phase of its experimental CBDC project, focusing on the infrastructure for large-scale payments between local and international institutions.
**Key Highlights:**
- **🔗 Infrastructure Setup:** The first phase of the CBDC project is complete, examining large-scale payments with both local and foreign institutions.
- **📊 Project Priorities:**
- Distributed ledger technology
- Artificial intelligence
- Increasing liquidity
- Improving securities transactions
- **📅 Project Duration:** The project will run until October.
- **🔬 Initial Research:** QCB began researching CBDC technology in March 2022 and launched the project in June 2024.
- **💬 Official Statement:** “We are at the foundational stage and evaluating the pros and cons of issuing a central bank digital currency,” stated QCB Governor Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saud al-Thani at the Qatar Economic Forum in May.
- **🌍 Regional Collaborations:** Neighboring UAE, along with China, Hong Kong, and Thailand, was a founding member of the mBridge initiative, with successful remittance payments to India.
- **🧪 New Fintech Sandbox:** QCB also opened a new fintech sandbox offering reduced testing time, rapid testing cycles, and a simplified evaluation process.
Stay tuned for more updates on Qatar's innovative steps in digital finance!
