Japanese International Minister Taro Kono.
| Photograph Credit score: Reuters
Japan is “critically pondering” about becoming a member of the Unified Funds Interface (UPI) community to permit cross-border funds between Japanese residents and people in India, and different international locations like Singapore and Thailand who’re becoming a member of the community, in response to Taro Kono, the nation’s Minister of Digital Affairs.
UPI “is a really handy system of fee, the place we will improve the interoperability of our fee system between Japan and India, or different international locations corresponding to Singapore, Thailand … I heard UAE can be becoming a member of,” Mr. Kono advised the WION information channel on Might 18. “It may very well be one other customary of cross-border tele-payment system.” Aside from Singapore, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, different international locations which have proven curiosity in UPI embody Bahrain, Mauritius and Indonesia.
Japan and India are attempting to “promote digital cooperation,” Mr. Kono stated. India was a visitor nation on the G7 group of nations’ assembly of Digital and Tech Ministers of the grouping, with Indian Minister of Electronics and Data Expertise Ashwini Vaishnaw representing the nation in Tokyo.
“Additionally, we’re considering how we will mutually recognise EID whereas beginning with cooperation,” Mr. Kono stated, in an obvious reference to digital IDs. The declaration issued by the digital ministers on April 30 says that the G7 international locations conform to “share and speed up greatest practices on digital id and credentials and help discussions on the continuing improvement of the OECD draft suggestion on the governance of digital id.”
Election interference
Mr. Kono alluded to allegations of Chinese language election interference in his remarks in the course of the interview. “We simply had our by-elections on the nationwide degree,” Mr. Kono stated. “We really feel that there have been quite a lot of intervention in that. So I believe we have to actually watch out and provide you with some inventive concepts on how we will minimise the influence of intervention or meddling by some dictatorship.”
