The announcement by the Central Bank of Montenegro regarding their partnership with Ripple, an American company, has been made public.
The two organizations plan to collaborate on the development and launch of a pilot program aimed at testing the state digital currency, as well as forming a comprehensive strategy for its implementation.
According to a joint press statement, the project will be implemented in several stages, including determining the practical applications of the future asset as a central bank digital currency and as a national stablecoin.
More details will be made available to the public later this year, as confirmed by James Wallis, the Vice President for Interaction with Central Banks and CBDC at RippleX.
Wallis further added that the pilot project will commence this month, and a sandbox environment will be created to facilitate interaction between participants and testing of the digital currency options for Montenegro “in a controlled environment.”
The Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazovic, had previously announced the partnership between Ripple and the Central Bank of Montenegro during the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.
https://twitter.com/DritanAbazovic/status/1615641780145344512/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1615641780145344512%7Ctwgr%5E11861d76742e453a55c213aa3e06f753deb33921%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbits.media%2Ftsentralnyy-bank-chernogorii-i-kompaniya-ripple-pristupili-k-sozdaniyu-gosudarstvennoy-tsifrovoy-val%2F
The parties had discussed the modernization of the country’s payment sector at that time, and the collaboration between Ripple and the Central Bank is a step towards achieving that objective.
Montenegro is committed to welcoming new value and investments and aims to provide greater financial accessibility and inclusion through the development of a payment infrastructure.