HCM City (VNA) –Policies and reality in building a cashless society in Vietnam was the theme ofa workshop held in Ho Chi Minh City on June 11 by the State Bank of Vietnam(SBV) in coordination with the Ministry of Information and Communication andTuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Addressing the event, DeputyPrime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue stressed that the Government has paid attentionto promoting cashless payment as a way to support the building of ane-government and provision of online public services.

Citing statistics of the SBV,the Deputy PM noted that Vietnam’s mobile payment market saw an expansion of 160percent in 2018, the highest growth rate in the region. He said the impetusshould be maintained and accelerated to narrow the gap between Vietnam and othercountries in the region in this field, and also to assist with the development ofother services.

Deputy PM Hue asked the SBV towork with the Ministry of Information and Communication and other ministriesand agencies to review and refine the legal corridor for payment activities,laying the foundation for the building and implementation of new professionalprocedures and business models.

The banking sector shouldcontinue to effectively carry out of the project on developing cashless paymentin 2016-2020 and the scheme on popularizing payment through banks for publicservices such as public utilities, school tuition fee and social welfare.

SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen KimAnh said the SBV will revise and supplement the legal corridor for bankingactivities in general and payment activities in particular so as to meetrequirements for information technology-based business models and new productsand services, with a focus on digital banks and digital payment.

In 2019 alone, the SBV willbuild a decree to replace the Government’s Decree 101/2012/ND-CP on non-cashpayment.

With the Government’s drasticmeasures, cashless payment has made remarkable progress in 2018. According to statisticsof the SBV, the inter-bank electronic payment system handled about 13 billionUSD of transactions each day, up 25 percent from 2017 and the value of mobilepayment increased by 169.5 percent.

A survey of 27 countries by PwC,one of the world leading accounting firms showed Vietnam’s mobile payment markethad the fastest growth rate in 2018, with the rate of consumers using mobilepayment rising from 37 percent to 61 percent.-VNA