Bank Indonesia (BI) Deputy Governor Filianingsih Hendarta stated that the nominal and volume of inbound and outbound transactions through QRIS with Malaysia increased in January 2024 thanks to the tourism sector.
“Based on the volume, (inbound) increased by 10 percent to 73,300 (transactions), while the outbound, our outbound transactions to Malaysia, also increased to 11,533 (transactions),” Filianingsih Hendarta said in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, according to the volume of transactions, she noted that the total inbound transactions with Malaysia reached Rp20 billion, while outbound transactions were around Rp2.9 billion.
“Indeed, from the tourists, there are more Indonesian tourists traveling to Malaysia, but they spend little, it is Malaysian tourists who spend a lot,” she said.
However, transactions with Thailand and Singapore have decreased. According to her, this is normal considering the holiday season that has passed in December 2023.
Regarding cooperation in the use of QRIS with various other Asian countries, Filianingsih said that her party had signed an MoU with the United Arab Emirates. She also hopes that the use of QRIS can soon be tested in Japan.
In addition, BI is still discussing the cooperation with Saudi Arabia.
Furthermore, Filianingsih revealed the progress of fast payment development at the Southeast Asian regional level as well as the proof of concept (POC) of digital rupiah.
He said that the development of fast payment has entered the third phase which includes the development of technical, business, and governance aspects.
“In the future, we want to get a multilateral solution to solve payment connectivity in ASEAN,” he said.
Meanwhile, the development of digital rupiah POC is currently still in the first phase related to wholesale rupiah digital cash ledger.
Filianingsih stated that the first stage of the digital POC technology platform had been prepared based on input from various stakeholders.
“This progress is still on track because the completion plan is in the first semester of 2024 and the results of this first stage POC are expected to provide insight (for the next stage of development),” she said.