As an important theme event of the 10th Silk Road International Expo, on May 22, the international financial cooperation and exchange event “Connecting the Ancient and Modern Silk Roads and Building a Cross-Border Golden Bridge with Coins” was held in Xi’an.
More than 200 representatives from government departments, international organizations, domestic and foreign financial institutions, and economic and trade enterprises conducted in-depth exchanges on topics such as cross-border payment facilitation, RMB cross-border settlement, and “going global” of financial services.
This event is jointly organized by relevant departments and is a highlight of this year’s Silk Road Expo focusing on financial openness and cooperation.
With the increasingly close economic and trade exchanges under the joint construction of the “Belt and Road”, the issue of payment facilitation for inbound business travelers and tourists has attracted much attention.
In this event, a number of cross-border payment cooperation results were released, indicating that the “last choke point” for overseas people to spend in China is being accelerated.
It is worth noting that at the meeting, TenPay Global, a cross-border payment platform owned by Tencent, signed a memorandum of cooperation with Eldik Bank, the largest commercial bank in Kyrgyzstan. Both parties rely on the “Cross-border QR Code Unified Gateway” to promote the interconnection of payment systems.
According to the agreement, in the future, tourists and business people coming to China from Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian countries will not need to download a new APP. They only need to open their home country’s wallet and scan the WeChat payment QR code to complete their purchases.
Tencent Financial Technology Vice President Chen Qiru said that through the TenPay Global platform, overseas wallets can open up multiple domestic scenarios with one-time API access, with low access cost and fast timeliness.
“At the same time, on the domestic acceptance side, we have also made local adaptations for overseas wallets, so that they can display real-time exchange rates and local currency deduction amounts in front of them. What users see is what they pay.”
It is understood that TenPay Global has also recently reached a cooperation intention with Uzbekistan’s HUMO payment system and Uzum Bank, and the core payment network in Central Asia is gradually connecting to the WeChat payment merchant network.
Up to now, WeChat Pay’s “outsourced internal use” has supported 36 overseas wallets in 13 countries and regions. Overseas wallet APPs can directly scan the WeChat Pay QR code to complete offline consumption.
In addition, from entry payment to departure tax refund, facilitated services are forming a closed loop.
The event also revealed that Tencent is cooperating with tax refund banking institutions to promote online departure tax refund facilitation services in key entry provinces and cities such as Shaanxi Province.
Overseas wallet users can choose to refund their tax refund directly to their overseas wallet, and it will arrive in their account within a few minutes.
This means that foreigners will have a smooth experience of “borderless perception” from the first purchase they make by scanning the QR code in their home country’s wallet when entering the country to the last payment of tax refund returned to their wallet when leaving the country.
At the same time, Judez Suleimanbekova, a member of the board of directors of the Central Bank of Kyrgyzstan, said that China-Kyrgyzstan economic and trade cooperation is becoming increasingly close, and financial cooperation is a key part of it.
“We very much welcome the expansion of the RMB cross-border payment and clearing mechanism in Central Asia, which will provide stable and efficient financial support for enterprises in both countries.”
In terms of serving enterprises’ “going global”, this event also launched a systematic measure.
The cross-border service partner program jointly launched by China Construction Bank Shaanxi Branch, CITIC Insurance Shaanxi Branch, Shaanxi International Economic Cooperation Promotion Association, Xi’an Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment and China United Law Firm was officially launched.
The plan covers banking, insurance, legal, information docking and other aspects, aiming to provide “one-stop” cross-border financial service solutions for enterprises in Shaanxi and along the Silk Road.
Many representatives of Shaanxi enterprises participating in the meeting are full of expectations for the above results.
A person in charge of Shaanxi Qinyuan Textile who has been developing the Central Asian market for a long time said that with the continuous implementation of payment interconnection and one-stop service system, practical problems such as lengthy cross-border settlement cycles and difficult corporate financing will be effectively resolved, and companies will have more confidence in exploring the Central Asian market.
From the facilitation of cross-border payments to the improvement of full-chain financial services for enterprises, “Belt and Road” financial cooperation is moving from “trade first” to a new stage of “financial development”.
As the starting point of the ancient Silk Road and the host of this year’s Silk Road Expo, Shaanxi is relying on financial openness and cooperation to continue to strengthen its hub status for Central and West Asia.
The relevant person in charge said that this event aims to give full play to the role of financial bridge, strengthen the interconnection of domestic and foreign financial markets, and contribute financial strength to the high-quality joint construction of the “Belt and Road”.
With the continued connectivity of financial infrastructure and the continuous improvement of the service ecosystem, the beautiful vision of “connecting the ancient and modern Silk Road” is accelerating into reality.
