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Indonesia, China launch cross-border QR payments via Alipay+
Bank Indonesia and the People’s Bank of China launched a cross-border QR payment link in Jakarta on May 7 between Indonesia’s QRIS and Chinese wallets through Ant International’s Alipay+ and UnionPay International.
The system lets users pay with their home apps in both countries.
At launch, Alipay and UnionPay app users could pay at more than 40 million QRIS merchants in Indonesia, while QRIS-supported wallets and bank apps could scan over 80 million Alipay and UnionPay QR codes in China.
Ant International provides the technical connection between the systems, and the rollout also supports local currency transactions between the two markets.
The launch comes as Chinese arrivals to Indonesia hit 1.34 million in 2025, a six-year high.
🔗 Source: Ant International
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
This payment link fits a broader regional plan
- The Indonesia-China QR link sits within a government-backed effort across Southeast Asia to make payment systems work across borders 1.
- Under the Regional Payment Connectivity initiative, central banks in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are linking their national QR code systems 1.
- Tourists and businesses can pay in local currencies, which cuts costs and lowers reliance on intermediary currencies such as the US dollar 1.
- Before the China arrangement, Bank Indonesia had already launched similar QR payment links with Malaysia and Singapore 2, 3.
Ant International is building a QR payments network similar to Visa and Mastercard
- Ant International’s Alipay+ is a payments network, not a consumer app, that connects checkout systems with banks and digital wallets 4.
- It follows a model similar to Visa or Mastercard. Merchants pay processing fees through Alipay+, then part of that money goes to wallet partners 4.
- The company focuses on small merchants in developing countries where credit card use is low and many digital wallets use QR codes 4.
- Ant International handled US$1.4 trillion in fund transfers in 2025, making Alipay+ a global payments network centered on digital wallets 4.
