Cashless society push will speed smart city development in Malaysia

Malaysia’s Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC), smart city enabler Cyberview and Mastercard have signed an agreement to support the Malaysian government’s push towards a cashless society.

During the recent signing of the memorandum of agreement at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, Cyberview’s managing director Dato’ Faris Yahaya said that a cashless society drive would help to strengthen smart city development in Cyberjaya.

Faris said the agreement is the latest in a series of milestones achieved by Cyberjaya in its continued evolution as a Smart City.

Recent achievements include the deployment of a city-wide long range (LoRA) network to offer an IoT lab and the establishment of its City Innovation Council (CIC) to allow startups to test out prototypes.

“Cyberview has spearheaded the continued development of the city under its Smart City and Living Lab initiatives – development pillars designed to increase its operational efficiency, improve the quality of life for the people of Cyberjaya and contribute to growing the local economy,” added Faris.

“We continue to do this by incorporating technology into every facet of the township through collaboration with our many partners, and this is eminent from our push in transforming Cyberjaya into a cashless city by working hand in hand with MaGIC and Mastercard,” he said.

 

“The reason why we’re doing this is because we understand that payments are the heart of a city’s economic activity – forming the core of every economic flow including salaries, consumer spending, business procurement, and taxes,” said Faris.

Cashless ecosystem

This latest agreement lists several initiatives to be rolled out by the partners to develop a cashless ecosystem in Cyberjaya.

He said some of these include integrating Mastercard’s digital payments service Masterpass to make everyday transactions for consumers faster, simpler and more secure as well as providing city authorities and urban planners actionable data-driven insights into the retail industry and to better inform their marketing campaigns for visitors.

These activities are in line with the government’s Economic Transformation Programme and Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) vision to transform Malaysia into a cashless society.

Ashran Dato’ Ghazi, chief executive officer of MaGIC said: “MaGIC will support the Cyberview Smart City initiative in a collaboration with both Cyberview and Mastercard. Through the Corporate Entrepreneurship Responsibility (CER) platform, MaGIC will play a key role to facilitate the partnership between players in the corporate sector like Mastercard and local entrepreneurs to design and build smart city infrastructure, services and solutions in Cyberjaya.”

Perry Ong, country manager for Malaysia and Brunei of Mastercard, said, “Through the Economic Transformation Program, an electronic payments agenda is embedded through a structural reform known as the Payment Card Reform framework where the payment industry is working together in efforts to broaden market access and to dampen cash transactions. It is imperative that we recognise the great control, transparency and efficiency electronic payments offers to society.”

Ong added that Mastercard will be providing the horizontal payment construct across all the vertical clusters in the Smart City including urban mobility, lifestyle, finance, health, supply chain and education among others.

He said this will  ensure an integrated payment ecosystem for a better commerce experience with digital solutions such as “Masterpass,  which helps Malaysians to enjoy simpler, safer and smarter digital payments across any device and channel anywhere  – be it online, in app and in-store with contactless.”

“By embedding digital payments into our core infrastructure and harnessing the data that electronic payments generate, cities can deliver on their promise to create smarter, more welcoming spaces, and empower their citizens to lead greater, more rewarding lives,” said Cyberview’s Faris.

He said an AllianceDBS Research report earlier this year projected that the ‘cashless’ system in Malaysia will grow by 15 per cent, five-year compounded annual growth rate (CAGR), as Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) pushes for reform in the country’s payment system.

“We will continue to collaboratively work with our numerous ecosystem partners, including MaGIC and Mastercard to enhance the liveability of the city and provide the people of Cyberjaya with everything they will need to improve their lives,” Faris said.