KARACHI: Ant Group, along with 11 overseas payment partners of Alipay+ and major international card organisations, has launched in Beijing a nationwide program to build International Consumer Friendly Zones across major Chinese tourist and commercial cities, with the support of relevant authorities and local governments.

A press release issued on Monday said the program aims to enhance international visitors’ experience and drive business for local merchants.

At the launch, Alipay+ jointly announced with NayaPay, Pakistan’s leading fintech platform, that NayaPay users will be able to make payments with their e-money account at Alipay+’s extensive network of 80 million merchants in China as bilateral trade and visits increase.

NayaPay thus becomes the 11th overseas and 1st Pakistani payments platform to “roam” in China, following AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR, China), Changi Pay (Singapore), HiPay (Mongolia), Kakao Pay (South Korea), MPay (Macao SAR, China), Naver Pay (South Korea), OCBC Digital (Singapore), Toss Pay (South Korea), Touch ‘n’ Go eWallet (Malaysia), and TrueMoney (Thailand).

Ant Group now offers two mobile payment alternatives for overseas visitors in China. Alipay+, a suite of cross-border mobile payment and digitalisation technology solutions under Ant International, enables overseas consumers to pay with their home e-wallets across China.

Introduced in 2020, Alipay+ now connects over 88 million merchants in 57 countries and regions to 1.5 billion consumer accounts on over 25 e-wallets and banking apps. This allows consumers to travel and pay worry-free globally and merchants to boost revenue through a growing portfolio of digitalisation tools.

Travellers may also choose to bind major international bank cards, including Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Discover®, and Diners Club International, to an Alipay app to access a rich array of local Alipay services from shopping, dining, ride-hailing to public transportation while in the Chinese mainland, without needing a local bank account or phone number.

On this occasion, Danish A. Lakhani, CEO of NayaPay, said today marks a monumental milestone in the commercial relationship between China and Pakistan as we witness establishing the first direct payment channels between our two nations.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2024