Widodo urges Indonesia to abandon Visa, MasterCard to be 'independent'

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
16 Mar 2023 15:54
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This is in light of the implementation of a Domestic Government Credit Card payment system in March last year by the world’s seventh-largest economy.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo during an interview in Jakarta in 2016. (Reuters)

As part of the new payment system launched last year, Indonesian President Joko Widodo called on Wednesday for his country to abandon the use of foreign payment networks like MasterCard and Visa and encouraged the public to adopt credit cards made by domestic banks.

At a local business gathering, Widodo emphasized that "everyone [in Indonesia] should be able to use" Indonesian-manufactured credit cards so that "we can be independent," as he explained that the aim is to avoid risking transactions in case of a geopolitical disruption that could economically affect the country.

According to the president, the initiative "shows that Indonesia is following the pace of digital technology transformation in the economic sector."

"Be very careful. We must remember the sanctions imposed by the US on Russia. Visa and Mastercard could be a problem," he warned.

This is in light of the implementation of a Domestic Government Credit Card payment system in March last year by the world’s seventh-largest economy in terms of GDP. It also follows after US-based Visa and MasterCard payment systems suspended operations in Russia as a response to the war in Ukraine.

One of Russia's biggest banks, Sberbank, fired back by assuring in a statement that the suspension would not affect its internal transactions, but that payments abroad would instead be affected.

Widodo had already announced that he won't join the sanctions campaign against Russia.

Statistics Indonesia data that was released last month indicated that the country’s economy expanded by 5.31% in 2022, showing its best annual growth rate since 2013.