Bank Indonesia has launched the Indonesia Digital Innovation Centre Digdaya x Hackathon programme and, alongside the People's Bank of China, inaugurated QRIS Cross-Border implementation between Indonesia and China. The update combines a domestic digital talent initiative aimed at developing practical innovation and entrepreneurship capabilities with an operational expansion of Indonesia's QR code payment system for cross-border use. The PIDI programme drew more than 2,000 proposals, almost double the 2025 level, with 800 teams selected for the initial stage. Participants will receive essential training, practitioner-led training and capstone projects aligned to industry needs, followed by business matching intended to move solutions beyond prototype stage into industry implementation. On the payments side, Bank Indonesia said QRIS Cross-Border with China is intended to support seamless payment connectivity and reinforce local currency use in cross-border transactions. Bank Indonesia also highlighted continued growth in QRIS usage, with 44 million merchants and 61.7 million users since launch in 2020, and first quarter 2026 cross-border QRIS activity of 2.79 million inbound transactions worth IDR 713.59 billion and 737,647 outbound transactions worth IDR 249.26 billion. The selected PIDI teams will now proceed through the training and industry engagement stages set out under the programme.

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