Thousands Of Indonesian Rainbows Transacting To Use Rupiah In Thailand, Bank Indonesia Opens Voice

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA Bank Indonesia (BI) revealed that there are thousands of tourists from Indonesia who have successfully transacted using rupiah in Thailand. This fact was revealed by BI Deputy Governor Doni P. Joewono in a press conference.

According to Doni, this is an implementation of a cross-border QR Code-based payment linkage between Indonesia and Thailand.

The cross-border QR Code is most used by tourists. From my data, since it was implemented in August 2022 the number of our tourists to Thailand is more than 51,000 people," he said some time ago.

Doni revealed that this figure is quite in contrast to the number of Thai tourists who come to Indonesia.

"There are still few Thai people who go to Indonesia, from the data that I have, only 6,258 people," he said.

This condition is also directly proportional to the number of transactions made by tourists in the destination country.

"Indonesian tourist transactions in Thailand are around 14,500 transactions with a value of Rp. 8.5 billion. Meanwhile, Thailand's tourist transactions in Indonesia have only 492 transactions worth Rp. 114 million," he said.

Therefore, Doni hopes that Thai tourists can continue to increase their visits to Indonesia in order to contribute to Indonesia's foreign exchange sources.

"We will continue to strive for this, especially with the revocation of PPKM, so that tourists can enter much more. In addition, we will also encourage the expansion of the use of Payment Services Providers (PJP) in Thailand, because they are not many, "he said.

For information, QR cross border allows consumers and traders in both countries to make and receive payments for goods and services via QR Code instantly, safely, and efficiently.

Cross-border payment cooperation is integrated with fast payment systems in both countries, Indonesia's BI-FAST and Thailand's PromptPay, which already have more than 70 million users.

Payment connectivity between Indonesia and Thailand will provide real-time cross-border fund transfers for migrant workers, expatriates, and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in making efficient cross-border transfers.

Through this initiative, payment connectivity in both countries can use currency from the country of origin, namely rupiah and bath.