Recently, Singapore has learned from China in developing mobile payment
On September 1th, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong talked about an experience of Singapore's Minister of Manpower, Lin Ruisheng, in buying chestnuts in Shanghai a few years ago. Lim swee say saw that customers in China waved their mobile phones and took chestnuts without paying cash. He thought it was a special discount provided by vendors to customers. When it was his turn to pay, he suggested that he didn't need a discount and had to pay the full amount in cash. The vendor looked at him doubtfully and pointed to the QR code. Lin Ruisheng suddenly realized that everyone was scanning the QR code for electronic payment, but he was so "old-fashioned".
In his speech, Lee Hsien Loong talked about three issues that have a bearing on the long-term development of Singapore, the third of which is the construction of a smart country. In 214, Singapore announced the 1-year development plan of "Smart Country 225", which focuses on information integration and implementation on this basis, aiming at collecting information through technology, making government policies more forward-looking and providing better public services. Promoting electronic payment is one of the five blueprints for the construction of a "smart country".
Lee Hsien Loong said frankly in his speech that there are also electronic payment methods in Singapore, but there are too many types and individual systems are not connected with each other. People have to carry many different cards, and businesses have to install many different point-of-sale terminals, which not only brings inconvenience to consumers, but also increases the cost of businesses. Singapore lags behind other countries in building a smart country in several related fields. For example, in electronic payment, China has been at the forefront, and Singapore must catch up.
According to Singapore media reports, KPMG was commissioned by monetary authority of singapore to conduct a research report on Singapore's payment ecology last year. It shows that the popularity of smartphones and wireless networks in Singapore is in the leading position in the world, but local consumers and enterprises still rely heavily on cash and checks. The local cash in circulation accounts for 8.8% of GDP, which is 4.4% in Australia and only 2.12% in Sweden.
The high dependence on cash and cheques not only slows down the progress of electronic payment in Singapore, but also imposes economic burden on the country and businesses. Meng Wenneng, director of monetary authority of singapore, said in response to media inquiries that promoting electronic payment is not only to provide convenience for consumers, but also to save business costs, enhance the productivity of businesses and lay the foundation for the development of the digital economy.
Lee Hsien Loong mentioned in his speech that the Singaporean business community is introducing electronic payment technology from China. It is understood that Alipay, a mobile payment platform in China, began to cooperate with local businesses in Singapore as early as September 215. At present, many businesses such as Comford Golds, the largest taxi company in singapore changi airport and Singapore, Grab, a well-known taxi application software in Southeast Asia, and Merlot Department Store, a retail enterprise in Singapore, have all connected to Alipay. Even the unique "hawker center" in Singapore, which has always only accepted cash, recently some merchants posted Alipay QR codes to attract China consumers.
according to the report of KPMG, 7% of the transactions in "hawker centers" and flats in Singapore are conducted in cash, and only 3% are paid electronically. In order to promote electronic payment, monetary authority of singapore plans to promote unified payment terminals in retail malls and restaurants, while in neighborhood stores and hawker centers, it intends to implement lower-cost schemes, such as using QR codes. On August 25, Singapore's National Environment Agency, Housing Development Bureau, Monetary Authority, Smart Country and Digital Government Department jointly issued an information consultation book, inviting the industry to brainstorm and provide cashless trading schemes that can support hawker centers and neighborhood shops to accept small payments.
Zhang Dayong, general manager of Alipay Southeast Asia, told People's Daily that accessing Alipay not only improved the operational efficiency of local merchants in Singapore, but also provided China tourists with a better travel experience, which also brought conceptual innovation to the development of local mobile payment in Singapore. "The first is the interaction between consumers; Secondly, Alipay helps businesses to be familiar with the new operation mode and even business model brought by this new model; In addition, for local payment eco-enterprises in Singapore, cooperation with Alipay has brought very good resources and growth opportunities and accelerated the upgrading of their business models. "
It is understood that in addition to merchant cooperation, Alipay is also actively expanding various ecological partners in Singapore. For example, Singapore Food Network has become Alipay's integrated payment and receipt, marketing management and content services partner in Singapore, and many payment and receipt partners such as eBay Payment, Mobile Credit Payment and Changcheng Payment are all connected to Alipay.