Viet Nam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) proposed launching mobile money services to allow customers to use their telecommunications accounts to pay for goods and services.

The proposal was made in the group’s meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue last week.

Electronic payment via mobile phones (mobile money) is a rising global trend and an inevitable eventuality. In Viet Nam, the demand for electronic payment options has increased significantly in recent years. By 2020, Viet Nam’s FinTech market is expected to reach US$7.8 billion.

Digital payment solutions account for 89 per cent of the fintech market in Viet Nam. The personal and corporate finance sectors are also expected to grow by respectively 31.2 per cent and 35.9 per cent by 2025, according to research by strategy consulting firm Solidiance.

Mobile money is a new solution to support digital conversion and is one of the key components of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the network operator said.

“VNPT is ready in terms of capital, with enough charter capital to establish a bank,” said Chairman of VNPT’s Board of Members Tran Manh Hung.

At a conference with the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) on January 15, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the Government had agreed to pilot the use of mobile phone accounts to pay for goods and services.

Nguyen Manh Hung, Minister of Information and Communications, said that the telecommunication infrastructure was not only for communications, but had become the infrastructure of the digital economy, digital society and of the fourth industrial revolution. — VNS