Chinese Ambassador Speaks Out on QRIS, Says This Candidly
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - The entry of the digital payment system QRIS into China has received a positive welcome from China’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Wang Lutong. According to him, the cross-border payment system integration can serve as a new gateway to strengthen economic relations between the people of Indonesia and China, while also facilitating cross-border transactions.
“QRIS is very well received not only by the Indonesian people but also by the Chinese people. This means visitors from China can come to Indonesia using Alipay, or perhaps WeChat in the future, to purchase goods, and vice versa. So, this is a very interesting development,” Wang said in Central Jakarta on Thursday (11/6/2026).
According to Wang, financial cooperation is now one of the new areas that can potentially strengthen the partnership between the two countries. He mentioned the Bank Indonesia Governor’s visit to China this week and the Indonesian Finance Minister’s planned visit to the Bamboo Curtain country next week as signals of increasingly close communication in this sector.
“Finance is also a new area of this partnership, and it is also an area where China can be useful in the future,” he stated.
Wang assessed that the integration of payment systems like QRIS not only facilitates transactions for tourists and business actors but can also strengthen economic connectivity between the two societies. He believes this step has the potential to drive growth in the tourism, trade, and digital economy sectors.
Beyond financial cooperation, Wang said there are still many new opportunities that Indonesia and China can explore. So far, the economic relationship between the two countries has been largely supported by cooperation in the infrastructure and mineral sectors. Going forward, collaboration is expected to expand into education, tourism, agriculture, artificial intelligence (AI), the digital economy, and high technology.
He emphasised that people-to-people relations remain one of the main priorities in the Indonesia-China partnership. Therefore, investment in human resource development and community exchange programmes will continue to be encouraged.
According to Wang, exchange programmes can involve not only Indonesian civil servants (ASN) and village heads visiting China, but also community members and village officials from China coming to Indonesia to learn about the culture, economic potential, and cooperation opportunities in various regions.