CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- To increase the number of POS machines that can accept foreign bank cards, and promote the upgrading of foreign currency exchange services and the RMB “change purse” exchange service... On April 16, the launching ceremony of Building Payment Facilitation Demonstration Area was held in Yuzhong District, Chongqing Municipality. The reporter learned from the ceremony site that by the end of June this year, Yuzhong District will be built into a payment facilitation demonstration area to meet the different types of payment needs of foreigners coming to China for short-term travel as well as medium- and long-term study, work, and residence so as to realize full accessible payment.

Why build the demonstration area?

To focus on solving the difficulties and blockages in payment for foreigners coming to China in Chongqing

Since release of the Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Further Optimizing Payment Services to Facilitate Payments on March 7, Chongqing actively took actions for optimizing payment services.

Recently, the Implementation Plan of Building Yuzhong Payment Facilitation Demonstration Area (hereinafter referred to as “the Plan”) formulated by the People’s Bank of China Chongqing Branch, Foreign Affairs Office of Chongqing Municipal Government and People’s Government of Chongqing, Yuzhong District was introduced, proposing to take the building of a payment facilitation demonstration area as an effective means to support Yuzhong District to be built into the core area of the central and western China international communication center, the main bearing area of the western China financial center and the core area of the international consumption center city.

The reporter was informed at the launching ceremony that the construction of the demonstration area mainly focused on solving the difficulties and blockages in payment for foreigners coming to China in Chongqing, and covered a variety of scenarios such as “food, accommodation, transportation, tourism, shopping, entertainment and medical care”. The Plan requires to follow the general idea of “swiping card for large transactions, scanning code for small transactions, and additional payment in cash”, clarify the improvement measures for overseas bank card acceptance, mobile payment, foreign currency exchange, cash use and account service, unify the software and hardware standards and procedures of each payment scenario, and the acceptance marking and posting of ATMs and POS machines, clarify the guidance signs of payment service facilities in the district, promote the use of individual local and foreign currency exchange signs, and optimize and enhance the user experience of payment services for the elderly and foreigner coming to China in Yuzhong District.

At the launching ceremony, Huang Maojun, Secretary of the CPC Chongqing Yuzhong Committee, introduced that “it is significant to build the payment facilitation demonstration area for the reason that Yuzhong District has more and more international friends who have more and urgent demands for payment facilitation services.”

How to build the demonstration area?

To improve the payment acceptance capacity around 5 payment service systems

How to build the demonstration area? It is understood that Yuzhong District will provide “one-stop service” through the construction of payment facilitation demonstration sites, build “five payment service systems” and other measures; and by the end of June this year, the payment facilitation demonstration area will be basically completed.

In terms of providing “one-stop service”, Yuzhong District will rely on existing visitor service centers and bank outlets in key business districts to build “Payment Facilitation Demonstration Sites” to make it convenient for the elderly and foreigners coming to China to inquire about and apply for relevant payment services, and to have special staff to guide them on how to open the mobile payment function.

As to building “five payment service systems”, and comprehensively enhancing the payment acceptance capacity of Yuzhong District, Ma Tianlu, Governor of the People’s Bank of China Chongqing Branch, said that banking and payment institutions will be organized to increase the upgrading and transformation of acceptance of foreign bank cards POS machines to achieve the full coverage over the key merchants in such key venues as large-scale commercial complexes, three-star and above tourist hotels, national 5A and 4A tourist attractions, national tourism and leisure blocks, cultural venues and museums, and recreational venues.

Secondly, priority will also be given to ensuring that bank outlets in Yuzhong District have sufficient cash reserves and reasonable coupons, continuing promoting the “change purse”, and actively promoting the transformation of ATMs in the district to realize the function of withdrawing cash from foreign cards. Moreover, Yuzhong District will resolutely rectify the behavior of merchants refusing to accept cash in the district, promote the establishment of additional foreign currency exchange service sites in the major business districts, tourist hubs, foreign-related hotels, and transportation hubs, and put in place self-service foreign currency exchange machines as needed.

In addition, Yuzhong District will promote the accessibility of mobile payment services and the full support of major scene merchants to accept various mobile payment modes, vigorously increase digital RMB accepting merchants, and focus on promoting a significant increase in the digital RMB acceptance by catering and tourism service merchants.

It is worth mentioning that Yuzhong District will also create 50 key outlets for bank accounts and foreign exchange services for foreigners coming to China, and such outlets should be equipped with foreign language consulting personnel or translators to optimize the environment for business acceptance in English.

When will the demonstration area be completed?

Full accessible payment to be completed by the end of June this year

It is reported that according to the Plan, before the end of April this year, Yuzhong District will complete the building of demonstration sites in Jiefangbei Business District, significantly improving the payment facilitation for key merchants, key hotels, key tourist attractions and other core areas in the Business District.

On the basis of building demonstration sites in Jiefangbei Business District, by the end of May, Yuzhong District will realize the full accessibility to “food, accommodation, transportation, travel and shopping” for the elderly and foreigners coming to China in key areas of Yuzhong District, and form a batch of landmark application results that can be promoted throughout Chongqing Municipality.

By the end of June, Yuzhong District will be built into a payment facilitation demonstration area to meet the different types of payment needs of foreigners coming to China for short-term travel as well as medium- and long-term study, work, and residence so as to realize full accessible payment. (Translated by Liu Hongyan, Fathom Language Limited)