The Central Bank of Georgia will assess the prospects for introducing the digital lari in 2023

According to the official representative of the National Bank of Georgia, the bank and its partners will formulate final proposals for issuing digital lari in the first half of 2023.

During a speech on the Rustavi 2 TV channel, Vice President of the National Bank of Georgia Papuna Lezhava told the viewers that the Central Bank is preparing to publish the final version of the document regarding the digital lari. He said that in the first half of 2023, a pilot project will start, in which all potential partners of the bank will be able to take part, and its results will become the basis for further research on the digital lari.

“We have chosen several options for testing the digital lari. At the first stage, it will be a limited pilot version aimed at evaluating the technical characteristics of the digital lari. Based on the results of the test, the Central Bank will decide whether to continue or terminate the project. In the first half of 2023, we will publish the final document, and then, together with the winning partner, we will discuss how long it will take to implement it,” Lezhava said.

Earlier, President of the National Bank of Georgia Koba Gvenetadze said in an interview for the press that the regulator does not have a unified approach to digital currencies, and the feasibility of introducing and the possibilities of the state cryptocurrency are still being studied.

Earlier, the Central Bank of Georgia has already announced plans to launch a pilot version of the digital lari. Initially, testing was planned to be carried out in 2022, but then the dates were postponed to 2023.