Fiji moves to electronic payments to reduce carbon footprints

SUVA, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Fiji's Ministry for Economy and the Australian New Zealand Bank (ANZ) announced two key steps on Thursday toward Fiji's goal to replace cash with electronic payments in a move to save trees at an event in Suva, capital of Fiji.

Fiji's Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum transferred a batch of online payments by the Fijian government over ANZ Transactive, the bank's web-based payments portal in order to reduce Fiji's carbon footprints.

The move follows the ministry's decision to use ANZ Transactive for all its payments, reducing the need for cheques and ensuring vendors are paid promptly and efficiently.

ANZ Bank said in a statement that the decision to use ANZ Transactive supported the Fijian government's goal to channel 85 percent of government payments through digital platforms by 2020.

Over the past decade, the Fijian government has made a strategic shift from cash and cheques to electronic payment forms. Today 70 percent of all Fijian government's payments are made through electronic platforms.

ANZ Fiji Country head Saud Minam said that ANZ supported the Fijian government's goal to offer Fijian efficient and reliable financial services using electronic banking channels.

ANZ Pacific Operations center processes around 1 million transactions a month from across the Pacific.

Khaiyum said that this was of course a wonderful initiative.

"With the ability of this sort of transaction to take place, we are not only able to save trees, we are also able to reduce our carbon footprints and provide a lot more transparency over our transactions," he said. Enditem