Over the past few years, honestly more than that, maybe even a decade or so now, there’s been more and more forms of e-payments over here that are independent from Global North systems.

The government has been pushing for digitalisation of payments, as part of the wider ASEAN push for more localized and independent systems.

Now you see stores and stalls accepting a lot of payment systems, such as Chinese ones like WeChat and Alipay, but also local ones such as TouchnGo and MaybankQRpay. You can actually see more than 10+ logos on each cashier stall, accepting a wide range of payment mediums.

Of course Global North ones like Visa and Mastercard are still accepted.

Just “recently” Singapore and Malaysia signed a deal to further integrate each other’s local QR payment systems. I think the deal with Thailand is ongoing with the wider ASEAN agreement on E-commerce.

De-linking from the Global North is increasingly important as they retreat from their neocolonial “free markets” to open domination and sanctions of “rowdy” and “authoritarian” Global South countries.

South-south co-operation is always a good thing.