INTERVIEW: Pres representative sees digital rbl appear in 3–7 yrs

MOSCOW, Oct 23 (PRIME) -- A digital ruble could appear in Russia only in three to seven years, too late to become a world leader, Dmitry Peskov, special representative of the president on digital and technological development, told PRIME in an interview.

“If we start moving toward it right now, I’d expect it in from three to seven years,” Peskov said, adding that the country will not succeed in becoming a world leader. “We should have started four years ago for the global race.”

The central bank said earlier that it is weighing the issuance of a digital ruble, but the decision is yet to be made.

“The digital ruble makes an important thing possible -- it makes payments more transparent, for example, in tackling the poverty problem. All talks and state programs dealing with poverty rest on the necessity of a target model to help those who need it, not those who are entitled to it,” Peskov said.

“To see those who need it, we should understand transactions of a household, otherwise we have a household with expenses of 200,000 rubles per month, but willing to get a poverty allowance. This is why we need a digital ruble.”

To use such digital services, there should be a device and Internet access, which could be settled via omnipresent digital intermediaries, like the country’s top lender Sberbank and postal operator Russian Post, he said.

Peskov also said that automation of working places will not lead to massive layoffs in the next few years.

“The appearance of robots, physical ones, creates more jobs than cuts them. The role of a human being is changing. Personally, I don’t expect neither a massive replacement of drivers or civil law notaries in the next four years,” he said.

(77.0809 rubles – U.S. $1)

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