on the cashless e-payment system that we are looking into.
the proper and best solution or implementation is not to have another sole company or organization like NETS to operate but rather allow MAS or bank association to set up technical specification like those of the IEEE 802.xx or MPEG. this will ensure multiple players will have the opportunity to work on thereby creating jobs and demand for human resources for the nation.
how it should be function will be like those of the wifi or blu-ray players. companies will develop their respective physical master devices that govern by the technical specification. this will allow the cost of such system being more affordable from the merchants' point (hawker center, coffee shop etc). for the consumers point, it will be apps developed on the smartphone and different companies will be able to develop their own apps (they can even include their own reward system into such an apps to attract more users) as long as the apps must conform to the technical specification.
as for the linkage to bank for payment related.....hey must i get into such detail ? i'm not doing a proposal here ok !!! haha
anyway a set of technical specification or standard is the way to go forward and not focusing on just allow a sole organization to run the show or individual bank setting up their own system.
The above scenario was the outcome of Singapore decided to embark on a cashless e-payment system after one felt being "sua-gu" in China for having to pay for a packet of chestnut in cash instead of using smartphone to do cashless payment. The push towards a smart nation is not just a Singapore thing but rather a global thing for the fact. I have to agree the move towards smart nation (not just Singapore but globally) is the way forward but I also have some reservations when pushing to work towards smart nation.
A smart nation is not just a nation adopting the latest technology in our daily lifestyle but rather focus on how smart the citizens of the nation should be in doing things daily. Any adoption of the latest technology should not be in a way of "forcing" people to use it but rather the people willingly to use it. As such, because one feel being a "sua-gu" in China doesn't mean we have to adopt the China's way of doing thing. 5 years ago, SGX decided to do away with lunch time break for continuous trading in the local stock market and at the same time reduce the tick size of stock prices so as to attract more daily volume, a following (copying) of what established markets (like US and Europe) are doing. However, 5 years later, we didn't see any improvement in daily volume and brokers are complaining of taking away their lunch break (violate of human rights ?). Now, SGX decided to bring back the lunch time break and widen the tick size for stock prices. This is a classic example of we can't just following or copying others blindly and hoping to get the same result. So the following or copying the China's way of doing thing is it correct ? In order not to ended like the local stock market, all the present problems regarding the existing payment schemes must be addressed and ironed out first. All these can't be ignored if not whatever we trying to implement on the latest e-payment system will be build on a rocky foundation.
Months ago I went to Best Denki to purchase something and during payment when I handled my credit card to the cashier for payment, I found there are couple of payment devices (the one that allow you to insert the credit card to process for payment) and out of curiosity as to why they need so many devices as all of them are doing the same thing. The cashier told me each device is for each bank (DBS/POSB, UOB, OCBC, Standard Chartered, etc -- the issuing bank for the credit card). If my credit card issued by bank A was inserted into the device from bank B, I would incur extra processing fee. This is the strict order from the various banks (if I am not wrong) and unless the merchant is willing to absorb that extra processing fee if not it will have to pass onto the consumer side. That is one of the big issue now in our existing payment systems that result in we don't have a standard card in our wallet for our daily use (purchase groceries from supermarket, travel on MRT or buses, etc). Can we blame the banks for creating all this diversion ? From the bank's point of view in order to maximize its dominant and profit, they have to do it. What we need is for the MAS, the financial regulator of the nation to step in to create some standardization if not entrust to the Banking Association to do it. For a push towards smart nation, at least this must be sorted out.
In the early 2000s, after being retrenched, I was doing some research and I came across this thing called JavaCard, being trial in some European nation. JavaCard is just a payment card that leverage on Java technology that allow a card to store important information onto a chip embedded in the card and that allow for wireless payment (tap and go in a nutshell). Then I was thinking should Singapore adopted such a scheme it will be a big step forward for the nation but unfortunately, the way I see how NETS (then the de facto popular payment scheme but not being used in public transportation) was being "overly protective", the adoption of more advanced payment method will face a very high barrier to break through. Years later, we have the ez-link card which was quite similar to the JavaCard but it only restrict to the use on public transport. Now, ez-link card is able to make payment for small purchases but only on certain shops like 7-eleven, Cheers, MacDonald, etc. Our supermarkets still not accepting that. This is another problem we are facing that is if the new e-payment system is being entrusted to a single corporation or organization like that of NETS, should they fail to keep up with technology and make the necessary changes, we are back to square one again. The only way to resolve is to have a standardization like those of IEEE or MPEG so that any future changes can be easily do it. For information, the present mobile phone payment scheme such as ApplePay or SamsungPay is nothing but leverage on Java technology (the apps on smartphones are all developed in Java), which I believe is the original idea of the JavaCard.
The Government decides to develop a common QR code so that consumers use their smartphones to make payment at hawker centers, food courts, etc. I actually got reservation for this idea. To use QR code scanning, one must have data connection on in order to scan the image and get the content of the image. As we all know the data plans being offered by all our telcos are basically "sigh....totally speechless". The smart consumers are actually those who retain the 3G 12GB data plan scheme instead of jumping into the 4G 2GB data plan. To be honest, if one needs to download a 100MB data, whether it is 4G (probably take you just 3 seconds to do the job) or 3G (probably take you 1 minute to complete), it just have to consume 100MB of your assigned data. Hence, extensive use of QR code to make payment and without our telcos providing a more cost effective scheme (of the data plan) we could end up with unnecessary increasing the cost of living just for the sake of pushing towards a smart nation. Even the adoption of other smartphone payment scheme (like those of ApplePay or Samsung Pay or any other rolls out by the banks) can only work on smartphone with NFC function. Are we forcing people to upgrade their smartphone ? We also have recently received the news that LTA decides to go cashless top up of the ez-link card at the train stations in the future. Weeks ago, I encountered an elderly couple seeking my help to do cash top up of their ez-link card and with cash top up they already faced with problem, what's there to say about cashless top up ? For a smart nation to success, people should be adopting the technology willingly and not being forced into it.
Technology is always a double-edged sword, use it incorrectly or time it wrongly (hey, shouldn't the push for smart nation being done 5 years ago instead then was emphasizing on productivity which until now I see no fruitful result), it will cut you instead benefit you.
