PM Modi said that an India-Malaysia startup alliance will also be established to foster cooperation between the new-age tech companies of the two countries
The PM also called for enhancing mutual cooperation between the two nations in areas such as semiconductors, fintech, defence, AI and quantum computing
Last week, India and Maldives signed a pact to roll out UPI in the Indian Ocean archipelago during EAM S Jaishankar’s visit to the country
Prime minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (August 20) said that India plans to integrate unified payments interface (UPI) with Malaysia’s national payments network PayNet.
PM Modi made the comments following a bilateral meeting with Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim in New Delhi.
PM Modi said that an India-Malaysia startup alliance will also be established to foster cooperation between the new-age tech companies of the two countries, as per a government statement.
“It has been decided to establish a Digital Council and to create a startup Alliance for cooperation in digital technology. Work will also be done on connecting India’s UPI and Malaysia’s PayNet,” said PM Modi.
The Indian prime minister also called for the enhancing mutual cooperation between the two nations in areas such as semiconductors, fintech, defence, AI and quantum computing.
The comments came as the two sides signed a slew of Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the areas of technology, digital payments and startups. An agreement was also signed between the International Financial Centre Services Authority (IFSCA) and Labuan Financial Services Authority to foster mutual cooperation in the financial services space.
“In the area of digital cooperation, both Prime Ministers welcomed the signing of the MoU on digital technologies and encouraged the early convening of Malaysia-India Digital Council to guide engagement in the digital realm and accelerate collaboration in this area such as digital public Infrastructure, digital B2B partnership, digital capacity building, cyber security, emerging technologies such as 5G, quantum computing, cloud computing, Internet of Things among others, between the two countries,” a separate joint statement said.
Additionally, the joint statement also underlined ongoing discussions between Startup India and Cradle Fund of Malaysia as well as stakeholders through an India-Malaysia Startup Alliance.
The developments come at a time when UPI parent National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has aggressively pitched the homegrown payments systems to countries globally.
Last week, India and Maldives signed a pact to roll out UPI in the Indian Ocean archipelago during external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s visit to the country. In July, NPCI rolled out ‘UPI One World’ wallet for all foreign tourists in partnership with IDFC First Bank and Transcorp International Limited.
NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) also joined forces with Qatar National Bank (QNB) to launch services in the Middle-East country last month, and followed it up with a partnership with the UAE-based Network International to fuel UPI payments in the UAE.
That said, UPI payments continue to see rapid traction in the country. The payments infrastructure clocked 1,444 Cr transactions worth INR 20.64 Lakh Cr in July, up 3.95% and 2.8% month-on-month (MoM), respectively.
