The Central Bank of Myanmar has developed a national QR standard MMQR, enabling se­cure and smooth international financial transactions and remittances while keeping abreast with other countries, said the Senior General.

Chairman of the State Administration Council Prime Minister Senior General Min Aung Hlaing delivered an address as mentioned above at the launching ceremo­ny of the national QR standard MMQR held at Jade Hall of the Myanmar International Convention Centre (MICC I) in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday.

Speaking on the occasion, the Senior General said that the people can use the MMQR created in line with the specifi­cations of Myanmar national standards as a milestone of key payment system in Myanmar financial sector development.

The Central Bank of Myanmar is a focal organization for promoting the pay­ment system of the country. Therefore, it makes concerted efforts to promote the payment system of the country, operate the system following the international criteria, promote public participation in financial system, ensure the financial transactions and transfers in people’s daily lives to be done in safe and easy ways, reduce cash use and adopt digital payment system more in the country and facilitate the for­eign currency transfers in trade, invest­ment and tourism industry of the country.

He continued that regarding the pay­ment system development in Myanmar, the Myanmar Payment Organization, comprising of state-owned and private­ly-owned banks, was organized in 2011. Then, the people used the international payment cards in addition to debit cards and credit cards of local banks without physically holding cash. In 2016, the Cen­tral Bank of Myanmar established the pay­ment network system, allowing taxpayers to pay large sums of tax via the local banks.

It also needs to create ac­cess to financial services for the public residing in certain areas without any banking services while the country sees high mobile phone usage. Therefore, the Central Bank of Myanmar released laws, regulations, di­rectives and orders for mobile banking, internet banking, mo­bile financial service, mobile pay and merchant acquiring service for up to the grassroots to be able to use digital payment method widely, and it also allowed sys­tematically for government payment and small-scale pay­ment such as electricity pay, tax, salary payment of government employees, insurance fee col­lection, small loan grants and collections.

Meanwhile, there was a need for a system that enables faster and more efficient connec­tions between banks and mobile financial service providers as per the objectives of the Nation­al Payment System Strategy. Therefore, the MMQR system using the QR code as a national level standard was developed.

He then mentioned the ben­efits of MMQR in making dif­ferent payments and the need to conduct public awareness programmes on how to make payments via MMQR.

He added that the MMQR can be used in different business sectors for payments like paying tax and electricity bills to the government, tourism industry, salary and pension payout to gov­ernment employees, small-scale businesses, fuel stations, private hospitals, schools and in selling commodities.

The Central Bank of Myan­mar has developed a national level standard MMQR, enabling secure and smooth international financial transactions and re­mittances while keeping abreast with other countries.

It is also a driving force to develop the digital business in­frastructure of the country. With the advancement of technology, it needs to monitor telecom fraud while systematic arrangements are provided.

He appreciated the collab­orative efforts of the Central Bank of Myanmar and relevant organizations in the successful development of MMQR and urged concerned personnel to keep working together to de­velop the payment system and strengthen the financial sector of the country.

Governor of Central Bank of Myanmar Daw Than Than Swe reported on the work process­es of the national QR standard MMQR.

After the event, she present­ed a gift marking the launch of the national QR standard MMQR to the Senior General.

Afterwards, the Senior Gen­eral posed for a documentary photo alongside attendees and observed the MMQR payment system and the booths displayed at the event. — MNA/KTZH