Vietnam and Thailand people can pay with QR code in many retail places in the other country with thei phones. — Photo courtesy of NAPAS

The Viet Nam National Payment Joint Stock Company (NAPAS) and Thailand Switching Company (NITMX) have announced the successful connection of retail payments using QR codes between Viet Nam and Thailand.

The project, under the direction of the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) and the Central Bank of Thailand, aims to realise commitments in the financial innovation sector signed in 2019, to promote bilateral trade, investment, and tourism as well as increasing the use of local currency payments between the two countries.

In the first phase, Thai tourists can use the Bangkok Bank mobile app to scan VietQR code to pay for goods and services at TPBank and BIDV in Viet Nam. While Vietnamese tourists can use Sacombank and TPBank's mobile phone applications to scan the ThaiQR code to pay for goods and services at Bangkok Bank's merchants in Thailand.

Payments will be directly exchanged between Thai Baht (THB) and dong (VND) at a favourable exchange rate, which is better than using an international payment card as there is no more intermediate foreign currency via USD or EUR as before.

The smartphone system will also be faster and more convenient than cash payments, and without worrying about losing cards and minimising the risk of transaction fraud by performing passwords or bio-recognition for authentication in Thailand.

SBV’s Deputy Governor Nguyen Kim Anh said: “The successful connection is an important achievement in the cooperation between the two central banks.

"This is also an important milestone in the cooperation between the central banks of ASEAN countries in implementing ASEAN's initiative to connect payments using QR codes that are compatible with the goal of promoting regional economic integration and digital transformation of each economy.” — VNS