New Delhi, June 16 (IANS). Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday launched the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) at the famous Galeries Lafayette in Nice city of France. With this, Indian travelers going to France will be able to make payments easily through well-known platforms.
Piyush Goyal said in a post on social media platform
“This launch further strengthens the economic and technological ties between India and France, reflecting the growing depth and ambition of our strategic partnership,” he said.
This digital payment corridor brings a major change in the way trade is done between the two countries. This provides instant convenience to travelers as they do not have to face the hassles of physical currency exchange, carrying large amounts of cash or unknown foreign currency exchange fees.
This will also provide an economic boost to French businesses, who will get immediate access to the large number of tech-savvy Indian tourists, thereby increasing the number of transactions.
Local merchants will also benefit from better cash management, lower costs associated with handling physical cash and secure, real-time transaction settlement, a senior official said.
France is the second country after Cambodia on June 3, where UPI has been launched. This important collaboration was launched following a formal ceremony in Phnom Penh, attended by Chea Sre, Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia and high-level representatives of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The statement said that with this program, the first phase of establishing a cross-border QR payment link between the two countries through Bakong’s KHQR (Cambodia’s national QR code) is completed.
The first phase will enable millions of Indian travelers to make easy QR payments at over 45 lakh Cambodian merchants followed by a two-way corridor.
While the first phase has prioritized Indian travelers to France, the partnership is designed to expand on a larger scale. In the next phase, this corridor will become completely two-way (working from both sides).
Cambodian nationals visiting India will soon be able to scan millions of UPI QR codes across India using their domestic banking and digital payment apps, creating a highly advanced, two-way interoperable financial network.
–IANS
ASH/VC
