The digital global rial

Have you ever wondered where did the concept of money come from? Around 5,000 years ago, according to historians, Sumerians in one of the earliest civilisations based in Mesopotamia, needed to develop the barter system for exchanging goods and services to a more trustworthy system of storing value suitable with the evolution of farming and herding. These new forms of exchanging value began with different objects such as clay tablets, until the Chinese developed early paper money.

Today, we are a crossroad because the trust the collective seven billion human beings have in the overall traditional global financial is being disrupted by the consecutive financial crisis and our hyper-connectivity. This by no means imply that money will disappear this century but it does mean that forward-thinking societies need to assess the current and emerging options global options.

The Sultanate of Oman with other countries in the region is in a good position to consider the advantages of developing an advanced currency, perhaps a digital, global rial, that can rebuild trust in the global financial system and offer an alternative in particular for global currencies competing for domination.

All politics in the US is local, especially during the presidential and congressional elections cycles. This drawback of the US dollar is becoming a burden on emerging economies. The internal polarisation in the US is causing policies to become more extreme and hostile to international trade in a way that is causing trade wars that impacts the flow of goods and services from China from example.

Eurocentric views of the world have exacerbated conflicts such as the Russian war on Ukrainian. This in turn has disrupted the global flow of goods and services and their prices. Therefore, the euro may not be an idea global currency.

Chinese economy and Road and Belt Initiative are visionary. However, China has no interest in disrupting the global economy or in any policy that will cause less attractive in global trading, therefore, the yuan may not be safe international currency bet.

Russia had been an aggressive global player that lost much of the US and EU market and will be tied for the next decade in recovery from involvement in wars in Syria, Ukraine and other emerging conflicts around the world.

Money started in the region and it’s time for innovation in money comes back to the region. A digital, global rial might seem as a necessary monetary and financial measure now. However, the yearning of present and future generations towards a more innovative, trustworthy and open systems make a strong case for a proactive pivot in thought and action-oriented leadership.