The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) is reportedly putting in extensive efforts to move forward with its CBDC-like project dubbed Bakong, as well as revealing details of numerous project milestones.

Specifically, per NBC’s director general and the Bakong project lead Chea Serey, Bakong’s electronic wallet has reportedly hit the 200,000 users benchmark in June this year, a two-fold growth compared to figures from the previous quarter. 

The blockchain-powered Bakong payment and money transfer offering was initially rolled out by the NBC in October last year. 

The digital money initiative has reportedly attracted approximately six million users in the first six months of 2021, including the ones connected in an indirect manner, via member bank mobile apps, which all resulted in a number of 1.4 million transactions processed, equivalent to around $500 million. 

The official reportedly revealed NBC’ currently plans of deep-diving into cross-border transactions via Bakong, collaborating with Thailand’s central bank and Malaysia’s top-tier bank – Maybank. 

Per Serey, the cross-border Bakong transactions will reportedly equip the citizens living outside of the nation with a “safe and efficient way to send money to their families”, as well as bringing many advantages to a lot of Cambodian women moving to Malaysia. 

Bakong’s rollout has reportedly created a surge in the use of Cambodia’s national currency riel, which is included in the scope of the country’s dual-currency network, together with the US dollar. 

“There are other policies that need to be in place, like having a stable exchange rate and inflation rate,” Serey came to a conclusion, claiming that the primary target of Bakong is to help grow “the usage of the local currency”.