By Karen Bong
KUCHING, March 4: SarawakPay may be renamed ‘SPay Global’ as the homegrown e-wallet platform has just gone global with new UnionPay Virtual Card feature that enables it to be used overseas.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg pointed out that it was now timely to rename SarawakPay e-wallet to SPay Global to reinforce Sarawak’s branding and presence on the global stage.
“In relation to this, we shall seek Bank Negara’s approval for a bigger e-wallet size, perhaps to a maximum of 1,000 Euro.
“I am happy to see that Sarawak has successfully realised its aspirations to go global and that our Sarawak Pay e-wallet can be used for a seamless cashless payment transaction internationally,” he said when launching the UnionPay Virtual Card on Sarawak Pay virtually at Wisma Bapa Malaysia here today.
SarawakPay rolled out a new UnionPay Virtual Card on its e-wallet platform today that has enabled SarawakPay ewallet to be used for payment locally and overseas where UnionPay QR code is accepted.
Abang Johari thus expressed appreciation to Bank Negara for approving the integration between UnionPay and SarawakPay on the international platform that was historic to both Sarawak and UnionPay.
“The success in this collaborative effort for both parties is the result of MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) signed with UnionPay during my visit to China in April of 2019,” he added.
With close to RM1 billion transacted on Sarawak Pay so far, Abang Johari was optimistic to see further growth of Sarawak Pay with this UnionPay partnership.
“Today’s event is another milestone achieved in the pursuit of digitalising Sarawak.
“Sarawak started early in 2017 towards digitalising its economy, ahead of all the other states and even the nation as a whole.
“Based on current trends, Sarawak has been setting itself in the right direction towards digitalisation, and our Malaysian Prime Minister’s (Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin) recent speech on digitalisation at the national front only seek to endorse Sarawak’s approach as correct all along,” he added.
Sarawak Pay now has 496,000 users and has close to 70,000 participating merchants in Sarawak.
SAINS chairman Datuk Patinggi Dr George Chan, Deputy State Secretary (Performance and Service Delivery Transformation), SiliconNet Technologies Sdn Bhd chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Husain, China UnionPay president and UnionPay International chairman Cai Jianbo (joining from Shanghai) and State Economic Planning Unit director Dr Muhammad Abdullah Zaidel were among those present. — DayakDaily
