In the upcoming months, the Georgian central bank plans to release a document outlining the idea of a national digital money.
It will be used by other involved parties to polish up their suggestions for the pilot, which the monetary authority intends to start in the first half of the year.
Georgian financial authorities prepare for the testing of digital currency
The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) will publish a whitepaper on the “digital lari” to enable possible partners to modify their proposals for the project’s test phase.
Although the NBG delayed the trials for this year, a pilot version of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) was initially anticipated in 2022.
Deputy Governor Papuna Lezhava stated in an interview with the Rustavi 2 TV channel that “we will publish the paper in the first half of 2023 and shortly after, we will discuss how long it would take to complete the project with the winning partner.”
The introduction of the central bank currency and a digital counterpart of the lari were required by the advancement of digital technology, according to a previous statement by Georgia’s monetary policy supervisor.
The bank went on to say that a CBDC is also required in order to improve how well economic policy works and better fulfill the demands of the digital economy.
The services of intermediaries, commercial banks, or payment systems won’t be necessary to conduct transactions with the digital lari, according to the NBG, which also noted that the new platform will be able to run without an internet connection.