STORY: Cambodian central bank, UnionPay sign deal on cross-border payment
DATELINE: July 11, 2023
LENGTH: 00:03:34
LOCATION: Phnom Penh
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. exterior building of the National Bank of Cambodia
2. various of the MoU signing ceremony on cross-border QR code payment cooperation
3. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): CHEA SEREY, Deputy governor of National Bank of Cambodia
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): LARRY WANG, Vice president of UnionPay International

STORYLINE:

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and UnionPay International (UPI), a subsidiary of China UnionPay, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Monday on cross-border QR code payment cooperation.

The deal was inked in Phnom Penh between the Cambodian central bank's Director General Kimty Kormoly and UnionPay International Vice President Larry Wang, under the presence of NBC Deputy Governor Chea Serey.

Serey said under the MoU, some 10 million KHQR users in Cambodia will be able to directly scan UnionPay QR Code in China this year.

KHQR is a universal quick response (QR) code system created for retail payments in Cambodia. It only requires a single QR for receiving payment from any mobile app including the Bakong app.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): CHEA SEREY, Deputy governor of National Bank of Cambodia
"The MoU will allow KHQR users to go to China and scan on the QR code of UnionPay, so that would facilitate Cambodian tourists to make payments in China, but most importantly, it will help Chinese tourists coming to Cambodia to make payments on QR code as well. So Chinese tourists with a UnionPay-enabled e-wallet will be able to scan at any KHQR merchants here in Cambodia, so it will be much broader. They will be able to pay at around 1.8 million merchants. At the moment, we have about 10 million (KHQR) users, so these 10 million users will be able to go to China to make payments. At the same time, we expect tourists from China to increase significantly this year, next year, so that would also help our tourism industry as well."

Larry said the MoU would enable Cambodian residents to pay directly with their local e-wallets in the global UnionPay QR code network, including China.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): LARRY WANG, Vice president of UnionPay International
"Today, UnionPay International and the National Bank of Cambodia signed a MoU in Phnom Penh, agreeing to promote QR code interoperability to better support the residents of both countries in cross-border mobile payment. The collaboration boosts UnionPay's linkage with national QR networks outside the Chinese mainland, especially with the networks of Southeast Asian countries. With the acceptance by more than 90 percent of merchants in Cambodia, and hundreds of thousands of cards issued by major local banks, UnionPay has become a payment tool favored by the local residents in the country."

Currently, more than 200 million UnionPay cards have been issued in 78 countries and regions outside of China, all of which can be used at almost all merchant Point-of-Sale (POS) and Automated Teller Machine (ATM) terminals in China, he said.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Phnom Penh.
(XHTV)