PHNOM PENH, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia and Thailand on Tuesday launched the second phase of cross-border QR code payments, which will allow Thai nationals to shop in Cambodia using the Thai currency baht. Chea Chanto, governor of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput, visiting governor of the Bank of Thailand, presided over the launching event in Phnom Penh, said a NBC's press statement.
The launch of cross-border QR code payments "aims to promote the usage of local currencies and financial inclusion, facilitate cross border trade activities, and boost tourism in both countries", the statement said. "As the first phase of this project, launched in 2020, allowed Cambodians to be able to pay for goods or services through mobile banking application by scanning QR code at retail merchants in Thailand and vice versa on the second phase starting from June 6, 2023 onward," it added.
The two neighboring countries' central banks have worked together since 2018 to develop a QR code payment app in order to allow people to shop in each other's countries using the currency of their own country. With the app, Cambodians will be able to use riel to purchase goods in Thailand, while Thais travelling in Cambodia will be able to pay in baht. The users of the QR code payment system will be required to have a bank account in their local currency. Cambodia's official figures show that there are currently more than 1 million Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand, and that more than 424,000 Thais visited Cambodia in the first three months of 2023. ■
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Thais are the largest group of tourists entering Cambodia right now
in Cambodia News
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Figures produced by the Cambodian tourist authority reveal that Thais remain the biggest tourist market in the Khmer kingdom. In the first quarter, 570,000 Thais were stamped in by land and air, 285,000 Vietnamese and then 184,000 Chinese nationals. The total admitted from all countries to Cambodia was 1.72 million, a 600 percent improvement on the same period in 2022.
Although there are regular flights from China, the huge Chinese market of the pre-covid era has yet to flower. Cambodian tourist minister Thong Khon said that more flights from China were expected and that his aim was to see at least 4 million global arrivals in the whole of 2023.
Observers say that there are several reasons for the slowness of the Chinese revival including a downtown in the Chinese economy, a rise in the prices of inclusive foreign holidays, particularly airfares, and delays in the issuing of new five-year passports many of which expired during the covid era.
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