On June 11, 2026, the second Governors’ Meeting of the Joint Working Mechanism between the People’s Bank of China and Indonesia’s Bank of Indonesia concluded. China-Indonesia’s cross-border financial cooperation ushered in a milestone breakthrough—RMB can be used directly in Indonesia. Whether it is trade investment settlement or daily tourism consumption, it can say goodbye to US dollar transshipment and realize direct payment in local currency.
The implementation of this major policy will not only bring great convenience to business travelers from both countries, but also become an important step in the process of RMB internationalization.
Many people mistakenly believe that “direct RMB spending” means that RMB cash can be paid throughout Indonesia. In fact, this is not the case. The core is to realize direct RMB settlement in two major scenarios: First, bilateral trade, investment and other commercial transactions can be settled directly in RMB and Indonesian rupiah; second, daily consumption can be paid in Indonesia through Chinese wallets (Union QuickPass, Alipay) and settled directly in RMB.
Previously, there was a cumbersome process of “USD transshipment” in China-Indonesia economic and trade exchanges: Chinese companies had to first convert RMB into US dollars, and then convert US dollars into Indonesian rupiah, which was not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also required to bear two exchange fees and exchange rate fluctuation risks, increasing transaction costs.
In 2025, the bilateral trade volume between China and Indonesia will be approximately US$167 billion. China has been Indonesia’s largest trading partner for 13 consecutive years. The huge economic and trade scale requires urgent settlement for efficient settlement.
Today, China and Indonesia have signed a bilateral local currency settlement (LCT) cooperation memorandum, superimposing a 400 billion yuan bilateral local currency swap agreement. Companies can directly settle in RMB, eliminating intermediate links, significantly reducing exchange rate risks and capital costs, and improving trade efficiency.
For ordinary tourists, the most intuitive convenience is the interoperability of scanning QR codes to pay.
In June 2026, China-Indonesia cross-border QR code payment interconnection was officially launched, and China Cloud QuickPass and Alipay were fully integrated with the Indonesian QRIS system, covering tens of millions of merchants in Indonesia.
Tourists do not need to exchange a large amount of Indonesian rupiah in advance. They open Alipay or UnionPay, scan the merchant’s QRIS QR code, and the system automatically converts according to the real-time exchange rate and directly deducts RMB. The process is almost the same as that for domestic consumption.
Supermarkets, shopping malls, restaurants, and convenience stores in popular tourist cities such as Jakarta and Bali have all supported it, completely solving the pain points of large denominations of Indonesian rupiah and trouble making change in cash.
It should be clear that RMB cash is not legal tender in Indonesia and cannot be directly circulated and used.
Daily consumption is mainly paid by scanning QR codes. Some hotels and large shopping malls accept RMB cash exchange, but the exchange rate is not cost-effective and the popularity is low; trade settlement needs to be completed through bank channels and relies on the RMB Cross-border Payment System (CIPS). Major state-owned banks such as Bank Mandiri Indonesia have accessed CIPS to provide safe and efficient RMB settlement services.
This cooperation is a key step in the internationalization of the RMB.
For a long time, the U.S. dollar has dominated international settlements, and the interoperability of local currency settlement and payment between China and Indonesia has broken the dependence on the U.S. dollar and provided a new paradigm for cross-border payments among ASEAN countries.
At present, seven ASEAN countries have achieved payment interconnection with China, and the acceptance of RMB in Southeast Asia continues to increase.
At the same time, Indonesia is issuing RMB “dim sum bonds” and preparing “Panda bonds” in Hong Kong to further enrich the application scenarios of offshore RMB and promote the upgrade of RMB from “trade settlement currency” to “regional circulation currency”.
For ordinary people, this policy brings real convenience: traveling to Indonesia does not require cumbersome currency exchanges, and you can pay by scanning the QR code with your mobile phone, making consumption more worry-free; doing cross-border business can be settled directly in RMB, which reduces costs, avoids risks, and makes it easier to expand the market.
However, it should be noted that for daily consumption, the priority is to scan the QR code to pay, and cash is still mainly in Indonesian rupiah to avoid inconvenience caused by restricted cash flow.
From trade settlement to daily consumption, the “direct spending” of RMB in Indonesia is not only the inevitable result of the deepening of economic and trade between China and Indonesia, but also an important breakthrough in the internationalization of RMB.
This move not only facilitates exchanges between the two countries, but also promotes the diversification of the global financial landscape and opens up new paths for cross-border payments.
In the future, as cooperation continues to deepen, the RMB is expected to be directly used in more countries and regions, allowing “Chinese currency” to go global and benefit more companies and people.
