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-commerce players throughout the country are backing the government'€™s initiative to develop a single national payment gateway (NPG), as part of its planned e-commerce roadmap, but have simultaneously expressed an expectation for far superior security measures.

Marketplace Elevenia chief financial officer Lila Nirmandari said on Thursday that she was in favor of the initiative as long as the new system would be able to provide improved experience and better security for consumers.

'€œIf the NPG can offer a far better service, experience and security than that offered by the current system, it may assist with our endeavors to gain the trust of society. Consumers might be more willing to make online transactions,'€ she told The Jakarta Post.

Lila explained that, under the current payment system, many people are still reluctant to buy things online as they are somehow suspicious of online payment security.

Voicing a similar view, Indonesian E-commerce Association (idEA) chairman Daniel Tumiwa said that, while his association fully welcomed the government'€™s initiative for the NPG, to raise public trust on e-commerce, he believed that the implementation of integrated electronic personal identity should be the first priority.

Integrated electronic personal identity, if implemented, would help to build trust between potential buyers and those who sell online as they would be able to check each other'€™s identities before proceeding with any transaction, he argued.

'€œI think that the implementation of the online national identity card will significantly boost online transactions, payment comes second ['€¦],'€ he stated in a short message.

Daniel said that his association heard of an initiative to launch the NPG four years ago but, to date, it had not materialized.

Under the administration of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, the government plans to launch an e-commerce roadmap to provide guidelines and create a better support environment for e-commerce business in Southeast Asia'€™s largest economy.

Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara said on Wednesday that an e-commerce roadmap draft had been finalized and that it was waiting for Jokowi'€™s endorsement.

He said that the e-commerce roadmap was expected to be launched this month in the form of a presidential or government regulation.

The development of the NPG, coupled with other initiatives like startup funding and cyber security, aims to create a healthy e-commerce ecosystem so that a target of US$130 billion-online transactions can be achieved by 2020, he stated.

The NPG will focus on building interoperability between local interbank network providers, also known as switching companies, to make transaction payments more efficient.

The implementation of the scheme, which will be supervised by Bank Indonesia (BI), will pave the way for the establishment of a central institution overseeing the interconnectivity of all electronic payments, including debit and credit cards, as well as e-money.

There are currently four switching companies that provide a network for e-banking payments in the country, namely Artajasa Pembayaran Elektronis (ATM Bersama) Rintis Sejahtera (ATM Prima) Data Network Lestari (ATM ALTO) and Sigma Cipta Caraka (ATM Link).

With the support of the central bank, all the switching firms agreed to enable interoperability with each other in 2013 with certain fees charged to customers of different banks. However, implementation has been limited.

Spokespeople for BI were not available for immediate comment on the issue.