By Nurul Fitri Ramadhani

JAKARTA, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia has been pushing for the expansion of the use of Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS), aiming to achieve its economic sovereignty and have its own financial system.

Launched in April 2019, the QRIS has been a pioneering innovation that makes digital payment easier for people in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy.

Previously, people had to swipe their cards provided by Visa or Mastercard in every digital transaction. But now, they only need to scan the QR code provided by the tenants. For every transaction, they need only one code for all platforms and the most widely used banks in Indonesia.

For now, the cross-country QRIS has been available for transactions in Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore. Indonesia's central bank, Bank Indonesia (BI), has recently announced that starting August 17 this year, the digital payment system will be able to be used by Indonesian citizens in Japan and China.

The Indonesian government has agreed on a number of technical steps until the trial stage and finalized business, technical, and operational arrangements with the payment system authorities from both countries, according to Bank Indonesia Deputy Governor Filianingsih Hendarta.

"Hopefully, if there are no obstacles, we can launch the trial of the use of QRIS on August 17," Hendarta said in Jakarta.

She said that the Indonesian government was also exploring a potential expansion to India, and technical discussions were still ongoing with the Indian authorities. It goes the same with South Korea, where Indonesia is still in the process of studying and finalizing cooperation at the industrial level.

Indonesia is also discussing QRIS implementation with the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority to be able to use it in the Middle East country.

Amid concerns of rising protectionism in the world, the QRIS system has now become one of the most important systems in supporting Indonesia's position in global trade.

During the first quarter of 2025, transaction volume using QRIS jumped 169 percent year-on-year, contributed by a continuous increase in the number of users and merchants, according to a BI report.

In the first quarter of this year, PT Bank Central Asia (BCA) recorded a year-on-year growth in transaction frequency of 117 percent and transaction value of 135 percent. During the same period, PT Bank Mandiri posted a sharp growth in cross-country QRIS services, with the total frequency and volume of transactions growing 3.8 times compared to last year.

In April, however, the U.S. government highlighted concerns regarding the QRIS. In the Foreign Trade Barriers document issued by the United States Trade Representative, the country noted that U.S. companies, including payment providers and banks, during the process of making the QR code policies, international stakeholders were not informed about the nature of potential changes nor given the opportunity to explain their views on the system, including how the system could be designed to interact most smoothly with existing payment systems.

Aknolt Kristian Pakpahan, an economic expert from Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung, said that QRIS was basically designed to build a more independent domestic payment ecosystem, so that Indonesia would not be completely dependent on foreign payment services such as Mastercard and Visa.

The existence of QRIS, he said, was part of the implementation of broader national interests, including maintaining digital sovereignty.

"QRIS has become an alternative that facilitates financial transactions, especially for business actors and consumers who do not have international credit cards. This system also allows more accurate monitoring of financial transaction traffic in the country. This system is a real form of the sovereignty of Indonesia's payment system," he said. ■