The UAE’s digital-dirham strategy connected domestic money with trade settlement
The 2023 plan combined cross-border work, an India bridge experiment and proof-of-concept work on domestic digital currency.
From the archive · 23 Mar 2023
A retrospective written for Chain Perspective. It describes the source at that date and does not imply current availability or status.
Reported development: · AI-assisted, source-linked brief
In brief
- The strategy combined cross-border and domestic CBDC work.
- Its first-phase timetable was a plan, not a report of completed delivery.
The development
The Central Bank of the UAE announced implementation of its Digital Dirham strategy in March 2023, engaging G42 Cloud and R3 as infrastructure and technology providers. The first phase included work on mBridge for international trade settlement, a bilateral CBDC bridge proof of concept with India, and domestic wholesale and retail CBDC experiments. The announcement set an expected timetable of twelve to fifteen months for that phase.
Why it matters
The plan linked digital currency to both everyday domestic money and the machinery of cross-border trade. Those are different use cases with different participants and operational demands. The announcement is useful because it shows them within a single strategy, but its timetable and anticipated benefits were forward-looking. This retrospective does not imply that every planned element was delivered on schedule, or that a public retail service became available on the announcement date.
Sources and verification
Based on an official announcement
Based on the dated primary source. This retrospective does not establish current availability or subsequent outcomes.
- CBUAE launches the Central Bank Digital Currency Strategy “The Digital Dirham” ↗Central Bank of the UAE · Primary document · 23 Mar 2023
Prepared with AI assistance from the linked sources. This is not a claim of independent field reporting or human review. How we publish · Report a correction
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