Govt urges UN to regulate digital assets

The question is: who will shape them, and in whose interest?" he said.

Bin Saqib placed ordinary people at the centre of the debate, pointing to the 1.4 billion adults globally who remain outside the formal financial system, alongside billions more who participate on unequal terms through expensive remittances and limited credit access.He also highlighted the continued cost of cross-border remittances, noting the average cost of sending $200 remains more than twice the 3% target under Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10c.

Closing that gap, he said, would return billions of dollars annually directly to families.The minister argued the development potential of digital finance extends well beyond payments.

Digital identity and verifiable financial histories could help small businesses, farmers and women entrepreneurs demonstrate economic activity without traditional collateral or documentation.

Tokenisation could create new ways to mobilise capital by fractionalising assets from infrastructure bonds to renewable energy projects, while distributed ledgers could strengthen transparency across public expenditure and supply chains.He cautioned against treating technology as an automatic solution, pointing to risks from retail volatility and illicit finance to concentration of power and a widening divide between countries with sophisticated regulatory capabilities and those without them."The choice before every Member State….

It is simpler, and starker, than that: to govern the future, or be governed by it."He argued regulation must evolve alongside innovation, warning that late frameworks can fail consumers and markets, while regulation driven by fear can push technological activity into less transparent environments.

The emerging lesson, he said, is that regulation should be treated as market-building rather than market-blocking.

Minister says 1.4b adults remain outside formal financial system as remittance costs stay above SDG target.