The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) is stepping up its exploration of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), but has not yet announced its deployment.

In a statement on January 23, the bank said that it was in the first stage of a project, which "cooperates with local banks or Internet finance to pay close attention to the CBDC test case of China wholesale price"

However, it confirmed that the release of such digital currency in such a Middle East country has not yet been finalized.

"SAMA emphasized that although it did not make a decision on the introduction of CBDC in that empire, it was once again committed to exploring the benefits and potential risks of implementing CBDC."

SAMA is studying these aspects of the digital currency publicly issued by the state, including the harm of economic development, the advance preparation of the sales market and the application of payment solutions based on CBDC. It is also prepared to check the current policies, laws and regulations and regulatory considerations.

This move is part of Saudi Arabia's 2030 corporate vision, which aims to reduce Saudi Arabia's dependence on crude oil, complete the diversification of economic development, and develop public cultural service units such as environmental health, cultural education, infrastructure construction, entertainment and tourism.

According to the acting governor of SAMA, Fahad Almustam, local banks or third-party payment platforms will participate in CBDC projects and implementation in large numbers.

In 2019, SAMA successfully launched a CBDC test called "Aber Project". It cooperates with the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates to scientifically study whether blockchain applications are conducive to cross-border payments.

At the end of 2020, the insurance company released a report on its investigation, concluding that the two-way public offering of CBDC is technically reasonable for cross-border payment, and "significantly improved the centralized payment system software at the elastic level of architecture design"

The key technology behind Saudi CBDC is not provided, but CBDC Tracker proposes that it be constructed according to the Linux Foundation Hyperledger.

According to the information of the Atlantic Council, a US think tank, 11 countries have deployed CBDC as a whole, and 17 countries are in the process of demonstration sites. Most of the projects that have been launched are in Curacao, one of which is in Algeria.