Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Amobile money pilot project has been submitted to the Prime Minister forapproval, marking a bold step for the development of payments usingtelecommunication accounts in Vietnam, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam LeMinh Hung said at the dialogue between the PM and the business community lastweek.

Besides, the central bank wasalso hastening procedures to propose the Government the issuance of amendmentsto Decree No 101 on accelerating cashless payments.

Mobile money allows mobilesubscribers to use their telecommunication accounts to make payments up to alimited value.

Last year, three bigtelecommunications service providers in Vietnam – Viettel, MobiFone and VNPT –registered to added payment intermediary to their business lines, paying theway for participating in the mobile money market.

In Decree No 11/CT-TTg issuedin early March about solutions to remove difficulties for production andbusiness to cope with the COVID-9 pandemic, the PM asked the central bank topropose the mobile money pilot project for approval.

The use of mobile phoneaccounts to pay for goods and services initially got the PM’s approval inJanuary 2019.

Minister of Information andCommunication Nguyen Manh Hung previously said that mobile money created a 0.5 percenteconomic growth for countries which allowed it.

According to a report of theBIDV Training and Research Institute, mobile money was present in 90 countrieswith nearly 870 million registered accounts, 272 apps and daily transactionrevenue averaging 1.3 billion USD.

The institute said that it wasnecessary to develop a proper framework and enhance security for mobile money.

Vietnam had around 129.5million mobile subscribers, around half using 3G and 4G, and 43.7 million or 45percent of the country’s population using smartphones.

Many advanced technologies werebeing developed and applied such as biometric authentication, QR Code,tokenisation together with the development of population database forelectronic know-your-customer (e-KYC).

There was also significant roomfor mobile money in Vietnam with just around 63 percent of adults (from age 15)having bank accounts, the institute cited the central bank’s statistics assaying in November.

Mobile money would also helppromote financial inclusion, the institution said.

The Government targeted toreduce the ratio of cash payments to less than 10 percent by the end of thisyear, from 11.33 percent in 2019.

Mobile money wouldsignificantly contribute to accelerating cashless payments in Vietnam wherecash in circulation still accounted for 20 percent of the country’s grossdomestic product./.