Malaysia ranked 19th for government e-payment adoption

A study by global digital payments service provider, Visa Inc, has placed Malaysia at 19th among 73 countries in government e-payments adoption.

Country manager for Malaysia Ng Kong Boon said the study ranks governments by quantifying their e-payment capabilities based on various indicators such as policies and infrastructure.

“The government in Malaysia has taken major steps to move the country into the digital age. 

"Having one of the highest scores in Southeast Asia is a testament to the government’s efforts in transforming the country to become a digital nation,” he said in a statement today.

Ng said supporting factors such as infrastructure and socioeconomic conditions also played a crucial role in increasing the adoption of digital payments.

“Malaysia has also done extremely well in the policy context of government’s commitment to e-payments security, support for fintech innovation and financial inclusion,” he added.

Contained in Visa’s Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) global index and benchmarking study, the ranking was based on seven criteria – transactions between citizen and government (C2G), government-to-citizen (G2C), business-to-government (B2G), government-to-business (G2B), as well as the infrastructure, socioeconomic and policy environments to enable e-payments.

Of the seven categories, Malaysia was ranked first with a perfect score of 100 points, along with Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Singapore in the B2G transaction category due to various initiatives in the payments space.

Malaysia is also ranked eighth in the C2G and G2C transaction categories, where citizens can access a range of C2G and G2C transactions through an interoperable platform.

Norway tops the rank followed by France and Denmark.

- Bernama