The small country on the Arabian Peninsula sees CBDC as part of its national development strategy.
The Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has completed the infrastructure for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) project and launched the first phase of an experimental project. The QCB will look at settlements of large payments among large local and international banks.
Few details of the project were released. The state news agency said it would focus on distributed ledger technology, artificial intelligence, enhancing liquidity and transactions with securities. The project will run through October.
The QCB began studying CBDC technology in March 2022 and confirmed that it was launching a project in June of that year. According to a press report, QCB governor Sheikh Bandar bin Mohamed bin Saoud al-Thani said at the Qatar Economic Forum in May, "We are in the foundation stage and evaluating the pros and cons of issuing the CBDC."
