QRIS: A Step Towards ASEAN Currency Unification?

Jakarta, Indonesia - As Indonesia and the entire world at large is moving more and more to a cashless society, interest towards the establishment of a payment system that could be used within the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has piqued.

This has been made especially feasible after the popularisation of QRIS, the payment system established by Bank Indonesia. Ever since it became accessible to the public, QRIS has been used by restaurants, clothing stores, and all other firms in Indonesia which require payment. Whereas before one would have to go through a process of typing in the pin of their credit card or take cash from their wallet, QRIS made it possible for a customer to pay just by scanning a QR Code.

Seeing its simplicity and efficiency, Bank Indonesia looked into the possibility of expanding the accessibility of QRIS to other countries, before announcing their decision to integrate QRIS with 5 countries in Southeast Asia.

“The Central Banks of 5 ASEAN countries, namely the Bank of Indonesia, the Central Bank of Malaysia, The Central Bank of the Philippines, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the Bank of Thailand have agreed on collaboration in order to form an ASEAN cross-country payment system that would be fast, cheap, transparent, and inclusive.” Stated the Indonesian Ministry of Communications ([Kemkominfo] through the ASEAN website. (27/07/23)

Now, citizens of Indonesia travelling abroad can simply exchange their currency to the currency of the country they are travelling in, meaning that it is likely they won’t even need to change their currency before travelling to another country within ASEAN.

This development has quite significant implications to the economic dynamics of the Southeast Asian region, possibly being the first step to wider ASEAN economic integration. This could lead to more economic independence for countries within the Southeast Asian region, with the possibility of reducing Southeast Asian reliance on the United States Dollar as a medium of exchange since the cross-country payment system would not be dependent on the exchange rate of the United States Dollar.

“With the usage of QRIS as the cross-country payment system of ASEAN, the countries involved would no longer be dependent on the Dollar’s exchange rate.” Said the Kemkominfo, which signals the intention of Indonesia and ASEAN to gain economic independence.

This announcement comes after a series of countries, including such countries as Saudi Arabia, Brazil, China, and Russia started making trades in other currencies besides the United States Dollar, which could be interpreted as an attempt from these countries to turn away from the Dollar as the international currency.

It remains to be seen whether or not this will result in further integration, but what is clear is that the establishment of the cross-country QRIS payment system is a step towards establishing closer ties between ASEAN countries.

*All quotations are directly translated from Indonesian to English.

Source: https://asean2023.id/id/news/qris-simplifies-payments-in-asean-countries

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