
HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Companies in various sectorsare seeking to help people limit physical contact with others, not use cash orleave home as the COVID-19 epidemic rages.
Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, has launched a campaign called “O nha khong kho, co Shopee lo” toprovide people with daily necessities.
From March 11 to March 22 it offers anumber of products at discounted prices.
To encourage people to stay at home, it offers daily freeshipping vouchers to offset delivery costs.
Tran Tuan Anh, managing director of Shopee Vietnam, said: “Weare committed to doing what we can to ensure the well-being of our consumersduring this outbreak. In light of the rising concerns about the outbreak, wehave stepped up efforts to provide consumers with convenient and affordableaccess to essential supplies and other shopping needs on our platform. Withthis campaign, consumers can enjoy one-stop access to all their shopping needsfrom the comfort of their homes and also greater cost savings.”
Banks are making efforts to bring customers more onlineservices so that they can limit the use of cash, which could spread theinfection.
An Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank spokesman said the bank is offering loansat low-interest rates to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and onlineservices so that customers do not need to visit the bank or use cash.
Customer can easily open savings accounts online and even get0.1 percentage point higher interest.
Many fees are waived including for money transferand online payment of power, water and internet bills and school fees.
Customers can also get loans online.
Nguyen Thien Tam, strategy director of OCB, said that sincethe COVID19 outbreak began, the number of transactions on the bank’s OMNIchannel has increased by half.
Other banks in the country are also upgrading their systemsto enable more cashless payments and internet banking transactions.
Sacombank developed a system of contactless payment over thelast several years and it has become extremely useful now.
To encourage the use of cashless payment, many banks have cutonline transaction fees.
Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer) newspaper reported that 32banks have announced cuts in inter-bank transaction fees.
BIDV has cut the fees on transfers of under 500,000 VND by 70percent.
New customers are offered e-banking services for free./.
VNA