PUTRAJAYA, Jan 18 — The Cashless@PEDi pilot project has been introduced at 28 selected digital economy centres (PEDi) nationwide to promote cashless payments among rural communities.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in a statement today said the Cashless@PEDi pilot project was in line with the goal of improving the level of digital payment literacy under the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint.
“The programme will be expanded to other PEDi across the country based on the study of the effectiveness of the pilot project,” said MCMC, which has formed a partnership with Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) for the programme.
PayNet owned by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and 11 local banks is the national payments network and shared central infrastructure for Malaysia’s financial markets.
The pilot project started at PEDi PPR Sri Pantai and PEDi PA Seri Sabah, Kuala Lumpur on December 31, 2022, which let local residents experience cashless shopping through various e-payment methods operated by PayNet such as debit cards (MyDebit), JomPay and DuitNow QR.
The Cashless@PEDi campaign will continue this month at PEDi Taman Kelisa and PEDi Felda Soeharto in Selangor as well as several PEDi in Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor, it said.
According to the PayNet Digital Payments Insights Study 2022, the percentage of Malaysians who prefer to pay by cash has fallen from 89 per cent in 2020 to 78 per cent in 2021.
— Bernama
