Going cashless? Grab may be Singapore's answer

CASHLESS has become a buzzword of late, thanks to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's recent rallying call for Singapore to expeditiously boost its e-payments systems. In his National Day Rally speech last month, Mr Lee cited China as the country that has "gone the furthest" with e-payments, boasting apps such as WeChat and Alipay that can be used for nearly all payments.

Since then, there has been a slew of responses from individuals and organisations alike on the feasibility of Singapore catching up to China - something this column called into question last month - and whether e-payments should even be a national priority. For the record, it should be - for the reasons of convenience, trackability, efficiency and cost.

How then might Singapore get to China's level? This is a most complex challenge, and one way to tackle it is to look at how apps like WeChat and Alipay are helping China succeed. If what the Republic needs is a similar ubiquitous, innovative app that allows users to do many things (among them, make cashless payments) we might have found our answer: Grab.