UnionPay International boosts payment interconnection among Belt and Road countries

BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) --UnionPay International announced Tuesday it had signed agreements with financial institutions of several Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries to develop payment services.

According to these agreements, UnionPay will establish a joint venture with financial institutions of Laos to run the country's national bank card payment system, while leading banks in Indonesia and Thailand will issue up-market UnionPay cards.

(Photo/cn.unionpay.com)

A bank of Uzbekistan clinched a package of agreements with UnionPay to issue bank cards. Besides, AmBank of Malaysia will issue the first UnionPay credit card that supports contactless payment in the country.

These agreements have shown new achievements in payment cooperation between China and BRI countries, and will promote the upgrading of the payment industry in relevant countries and regions, said Fan Yifei, deputy-governor of the People's Bank of China.

The UnionPay has extended its services to 106 BRI countries and regions, with a total of 43 million bank cards issued, covering 12 million merchants and 800,000 ATMs since the proposal of the BRI in 2013, said Shao Fujun, Chairman of the board of China UnionPay.