Diverse solutions to promote cashless payments

With the synchronous development of infrastructure and increased information and propaganda, cashless payment has now become a habit of many people in Quang Ninh from urban to rural areas.

Although she is retired and her family does not do business, Ms. Nguyen Thi Son (Tan Phu village, Tan Lap commune, Dam Ha district) has gradually become accustomed to cashless payments. She said: I have had a bank account for over a year now, when I buy household items, I almost always transfer money instead of using cash.

Not only Ms. Son but also many people in the province have formed the habit of not using cash. To promote the policy of not using cash, the province has focused on investing in Internet infrastructure in rural, mountainous, border and island areas of the province.

The BTS station invested in Van Ca village, Cai Chien commune helps people in the commune conveniently exchange information via phone and Internet to serve the socio-economic development of the locality.

From the beginning of 2024 to present, the Department of Information and Communications has continued to deploy the construction of 7 BTS stations to cover the waves according to the 2023 plan; directed, guided, and urged telecommunications enterprises to invest in developing high-quality broadband infrastructure in the whole province. The Department has also appraised the documents and approved 7 locations for building antenna poles of Mobifone Quang Ninh in accordance with Plan No. 230/KH-UBND dated September 7, 2023 of the Provincial People's Committee on developing digital infrastructure in Quang Ninh province to 2025 with a vision to 2030; the implementation plan for 2023 and the plan for developing passive telecommunications infrastructure of enterprises in 2024.

As of June 2024, the province has completed information standardization for 1,503,641/1,503,641 main subscribers in the province. At the same time, it has converted 2G SIMs to 4G for 11,235/118,696 subscribers in the province, accounting for 9.5%. The rate of mobile broadband subscribers/100 people reached 106.7%; the rate of households with broadband fiber optic Internet reached 95.2%; the rate of development of high-quality broadband telecommunications infrastructure with 3G waves reached 30.31%, 4G reached 49.88%, and 5G reached 0.03%.

People scan QR-Code to pay fees at Cam La Commune People's Committee (Quang Yen Town). Photo: Cao Quynh

On the part of the State Bank (SBV), it continues to direct units in the whole industry to actively implement the plan to implement the Project on developing non-cash payments for the period 2021-2025. The inter-bank electronic payment system, the financial switching and electronic clearing system, and the ATM system operate stably, safely, and smoothly, serving well the payment needs of people and businesses.

The State Bank of Vietnam has directed commercial banks and payment intermediary organizations to actively invest in technology application, research, and have solutions to connect with the National Public Service Portal to make online payments for services that have been integrated on the National Public Service Portal, including collection of fees, administrative procedure fees, university admission fees, traffic violation fines, etc. At the same time, actively coordinate with relevant agencies in paying for public services, such as: hospital fees, tuition fees, social security payments, traffic fees, etc.

In addition to infrastructure investment, propaganda work on cashless payments has also been promoted through various types of press and electronic information portals, grassroots information, social networking platforms... In the first 6 months of 2024, the Provincial Media Center alone carried out propaganda on infrastructure about 110 news, articles, photos, video clips; nearly 250 topics on Project 06 and digital transformation, including cashless payments...

People pay by scanning QR code at a gas station in Van Don district. Photo: Cao Quynh

Some associations are also active in promoting cashless practices. Typically, the Provincial Farmers' Association organized 17 training conferences to guide 1,530 farmer members on digital transformation in agriculture and rural areas; supported over 5,000 farmer members to have accounts on e-commerce platforms, of which at least 1,500 accounts had transactions. Or the Provincial Women's Association organized 18 training conferences to introduce digital platform applications in business management and smart consumption...

Thanks to the synchronization of infrastructure, propaganda and mobilization, by June 2024, the province had 3.3 million personal accounts, of which 2.4 million were active; 477,000 accounts opened using eKYC; 59,898 business accounts; an average of 2.4 active accounts/person aged 15 and over. In addition, there were 795.7,000 Mobile Money accounts. Payment of social insurance and unemployment benefits through accounts reached 66,289 people/133,606 people; payment of social security for social policy beneficiaries reached 32,158/62,316 people with a total cost of 126,665,131 thousand VND.

Along with that, the current non-cash state budget revenue (taxes, fees, charges) reaches 97.1%. Enterprises, organizations, individuals, and households paying electricity bills reaches 97.8%. Enterprises, organizations, individuals, and households paying water bills reaches 92.2%; tuition fees at vocational training institutions reaches 92%; hospital fees at hospitals reach 43.8%; hospital fees at district-level medical centers reach 22.6%.

The province has also implemented cashless fee collection at the provincial and district Public Administration Service Centers, reaching 100%; the commune-level Reception and Result Delivery Department reached 94.4%; and the collection of Ha Long Bay sightseeing fees reached 81%. 100% of petrol and oil retail establishments in the province have implemented at least one cashless payment solution when making payments for petrol purchases and sales.

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/da-dang-giai-phap-day-manh-thanh-toan-khong-dung-tien-mat-3314670.html