On Tuesday, the commerce ministry stated that discussions on introducing Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in the island nation are being done by India and New Zealand, which will be promoting ease of doing business, trade and tourism between both countries.
According to the statement, “Ministers (Indian and New Zealand trade ministers) welcomed early discussions between National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Payments NZ regarding the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system and agreed that both sides should continue deliberations on this issue.”
It also added that they agreed that introduction of UPI in New Zealand would promote ease of doing business between both the countries and promote trade and tourism as well.
At present, the countries that have already adopted the UPI payment system are UAE, Bhutan and Nepal.
In 2022, the umbrella organisation NPCI that offers UPI services, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Lyra, France’s online payment system. In 2023, UPI and Singapore’s PayNow signed an agreement that allowed users in either country to make cross-border transactions.
NPCI International is currently in talks to expand UPI services to the US, European countries and West Asia.
Meanwhile, both Piyush Goyal, the Indian commerce minister and Damien O’ Connor, his New Zealand counterpart have acknowledged the significance of cooperation between the two countries as ‘Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity’ members across the supply chain, clean economy and fair economy pillars.
According to the statement, on the trade facilitation side, both the ministers acknowledged the joint effort for finding a feasible alternative for allowing import of wooden logs from New Zealand.
It also added that both ministers welcomed the recent commencement of export of Indian mango to New Zealand as well as the progress being made by New Zealand on India’s request for allowing two additional Vapour Heat Treatment facilities in India for export of mangoes.