The Quick Response Indonesia Standard (QRIS) system will tap into China’s two dominant digital payment platforms, Alipay and WeChat, as part of Bank Indonesia’s (BI) ongoing expansion into the country. The integration is currently underway, with full implementation expected by the end of this year. BI payment system policy director Ryan Rizaldy said QRIS would be linked to those two platforms, though the integration had faced challenges due to diverging standards.
“We are seeking high merchant acceptance in the partner country, so that Indonesians can use [QRIS] at many merchants [in China]. That’s why we can’t make a deal with only one [payment provider],” he told reporters on the sidelines of a public discussion held by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Wednesday.
Ryan emphasized that the goal was to ensure QRIS could be “readable” for all merchants in China, adding that “the People’s Bank of China [PBoC] has the solution.” He explained that the PBoC would help link QRIS with both Alipay and WeChat without creating a new standard, though he did not provide further details on the integration mechanism.
BI had previously announced its collaboration with the PBoC to begin an “interconnection trial” between the two countries ahead of the planned expansion to China. The trial involves the Indonesian Payment System Association (ASPI), China’s UnionPay International (UPI), and representatives of payment system providers.
ASPI head Cosmas Setiawan Suwono said in August that the trial was expected to be completed “within this month,” allowing piloting to begin in September. The central bank said in April that four local payment service providers, PT Rintis Sejahtera, PT Alto Network, PT Artajasa Pembayaran Elektronis, and PT Jalin Pembayaran Nusantara, had reached an agreement with UnionPay International to create a secure testing environment, or sandbox.
During his session at the public discussion, Ryan highlighted that harmonizing policies remained the main challenge in implementing cross-border QR payment initiatives, noting that many countries, including China, had no unified standards. Other challenges included limited awareness of cross-border payment services in both Indonesia and partner countries, differing payment preferences, and growing concerns about potential fraud as the system expands. The central bank has already extended its QR technology to several ASEAN countries and beyond, including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and most recently, Japan in August. In addition, it has placed several other countries in the pipeline, such as India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ,and Saudi Arabia.
Asked about the current expansion plan in the ASEAN region, Ryan hinted that priority would be given to countries with “stronger economic ties” and “higher transaction potential,” given the high costs of linkage and the varying economic scales across countries. However, he added that implementing cross-border payments with other regional countries such as Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia was also possible, as they were already part of the regional payment connectivity (RPC) initiative. The adoption of QRIS among consumers and merchants has been surging at home, with the transaction volume of digital payments using the QR platform growing 148.5 percent year-on-year (yoy) to 6.1 billion in the first half of this year.
October 2, 2025, The Jakarta Post
(https://www.thejakartapost.com/business/2025/10/02/bi-to-link-qris-with-alipay-wechat-standards-in-china-push.html)