Jakarta. Vietnam has just officially joined ASEAN’s regional payment connectivity initiative, thus paving the way for Hanoi to link their national QR payment codes with the other member states.

The State Bank of Vietnam inked the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the payment linkage at the group’s gathering of its central bank governors in Jakarta on Friday. Vietnam is joining five other ASEAN member states --Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines-- who had already signed a similar MoU last November. 

“Vietnam is ready to join [the regional payment connectivity]. … Basically, all ASEAN members will be part [of this connectivity in the future]. But the implementation happens in stages, depending on the readiness of the country,” Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo said.

Pham Thanh Ha, the deputy governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, said that the MoU became a "good starting point" for ASEAN's economic integration.

"We look forward to a close cooperation among all parties to promote a safer, cheaper, more transparent and inclusive cross-border payment,” Pham told the reporters shortly after the MoU signing.

A key part of this MoU includes cooperation on the cross-border QR payment system. ASEAN chair Indonesia has already linked its national QR payment code --popularly known as the Quick Response Indonesian Standard (QRIS)-- with its Thai and Malaysian counterparts. This lets Indonesians make payments in their local currency Rupiah just by scanning QR codes using QRIS when traveling to Malaysia or Thailand. The same goes for Malaysian and Thai tourists in Indonesia. This bypasses the need to use American dollars as an intermediary.

Trials on linking the QRIS and its Singaporean counterpart are currently in progress and are expected to enter commercial operations later this year.

Brunei Darussalam is set to be the seventh ASEAN member state to join ASEAN’s payment linkage. Perry,  however, did not go into details on Brunei’s joining date, only saying it would happen “soon”.

"Brunei is currently preparing the domestic regulations with the industry and so on. We also invite other member states to join the regional payment connectivity,” Perry said.