India and New Zealand recognise the potential of a partnership and the importance of fostering synergy to strengthen economic relations in mutually beneficial areas. The two sides discussed facilitating the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) system, collaborating on carbon credits, establishing a trans-shipment hub, fostering technological collaboration, and enhancing cooperation in work visa and banking-related matters.
The Unified Payment Interface was developed under the Digital India initiative and is run by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The UPI is a system that powers several bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features.
The countries agreed that it is essential to go beyond a free trade agreement and explore additional avenues where both countries can complement each other. The discussions also centred around advancing the objectives of the Joint Trade Committee (JTC), which was established under the Bilateral Trade Agreement of 1986.
Apart from the promotion of the UPI system, other areas explored include working together on specific issues such as the comprehensive proposal made by New Zealand’s major kiwifruit marketer, and the prioritisation of requests on non-tariff measures for bilateral gains. Officials also emphasised the need to increase air connectivity between the two countries.
The meeting was co-chaired by the Indian Additional Secretary of the Department of Commerce, Rajesh Agarwal, and the High Commissioner of New Zealand in India, David Pine. Agarwal emphasised the importance of establishing a proactive operational framework for mutual benefit, which would involve the creation of working groups that would provide concrete ideas and solutions to the Joint Trade Committee.
During the event, representatives from various Indian industries, including IT and ITeS, logistics, banking, as well as manufacturing sectors such as food processing, pharmaceuticals, automobile, construction, and power, actively participated and provided valuable insights on bilateral issues. They highlighted the potential and opportunities that exist between both economies, emphasising the need to nurture these opportunities through continued interactions.
India has been actively collaborating with various countries to promote and enhance digital payments. Earlier this year, RBI and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) linked Singapore’s PayNow and India’s UPI. As OpenGov Asia reported, customers of eligible financial institutions in both Singapore and India can avail of the facility to transfer funds in real-time between their bank accounts or e-wallets, enabling seamless cross-border transactions.
Users can transfer money using a mobile phone number, UPI identity, or Virtual Payment Address (VPA). The connection provides customers with a secure, user-friendly, and cost-efficient solution for conducting cross-border fund transfers. PayNow-UPI linkage is the first-ever real-time payment systems linkage to use a scalable cloud-based infrastructure that can handle future increases in the volume of remittance traffic. It is also the first linkage to have a non-bank financial institution as a participant.
The linkage incorporates the automatic integration of capital control regulations to enhance efficiency. MAS and RBI will evaluate and gradually expand the linkage by adding more participating financial institutions and expanding applicable use cases. Extensive collaboration among MAS, RBI, payment system operators, payment scheme owners, participating banks, and non-bank financial institutions led to the creation of the PayNow-UPI linkage.
