A breakthrough in the cashless payment transition.

After three years of implementing the Non-Cash Payment Development Project for the period 2021-2025, Thanh Hoa province has achieved impressive results. Particularly in 2024, the province made significant breakthroughs, with a sharp increase in the rate of non-cash payments across most sectors, changing people's money usage habits and contributing to the local digital transformation.

A breakthrough in the cashless payment transition. Most young people use cashless payments when shopping.

People are excited about digital payments.

This change is clearly demonstrated through the experiences of many people. At Dong Ve Market in Thanh Hoa City, Ms. Le Thi Hue shared her journey of transitioning from apprehension to satisfaction with the new payment method: "Initially, when bank officials came to the market to guide the use of QR codes, many small traders were hesitant. However, with the increasing popularity of electronic payments, I boldly registered for a bank account. Now, my business is much more convenient, and I no longer worry about counterfeit money or receiving change."

For elderly people like Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy in Thanh Hoa City, electronic payment systems have brought many significant benefits. Instead of having to cycle to the ward post office and wait all morning to receive her pension as before, now the money is automatically transferred to her account every month. With facial recognition on her smartphone, she can easily pay when shopping at the market or buying groceries without carrying cash. Paying electricity and water bills is also conveniently done from home via her phone.

In the field of education , Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, residing in Dong Tho ward, Thanh Hoa city, also highly appreciates the convenience of this payment method. With two children studying in middle and high school, paying tuition fees through a bank account saves her a lot of time. In particular, all payments are clearly and transparently recorded, and transaction history can be checked for verification when needed.

At Thanh Hoa Provincial General Hospital, Mr. Le Ba Bach from Trieu Son district also shared the advantages of not having to carry a lot of cash when going for medical check-ups and treatment. Simply by bringing his ATM card or phone, he can easily pay hospital fees and medication costs by scanning a QR code.

Vigorous implementation yields impressive results.

These positive results were achieved thanks to the decisive involvement of all levels of government, along with the support of banks and telecommunications companies.

In this regard, the Provincial People's Committee has issued numerous directives and assigned specific tasks to departments, agencies, and localities. In 2024, the province focused on three main groups of solutions: developing payment infrastructure and services, promoting electronic payments in public services, and strengthening communication and security.

In terms of technical infrastructure, telecommunications businesses have made significant investments. In 2024, the entire province built 336 new mobile communication base stations and installed an additional 698 4G and 5G devices on newly built and existing infrastructure, bringing the total number of existing mobile communication base stations to 9,433. Currently, 99.66% of villages and hamlets are provided with mobile broadband internet, and the province also has nearly 5,000 fixed broadband internet service points in public areas.

Alongside the development of telecommunications infrastructure, the banking payment system has also been significantly upgraded. By the end of 2024, the province had 367 ATMs/CDMs and nearly 4,000 POS machines with 3,951 card payment acceptance points at retail establishments, distribution chains, hotels, and continued expansion to medical facilities, public administrative service centers, schools, etc. Banks have focused on developing modern payment services such as opening accounts and cards electronically (eKYC), paying and withdrawing money at ATMs using QR Code, and contactless chip card payments. Many banks also apply policies of waiving all digital banking services, including account maintenance fees, money transfer fees, and no minimum account balance requirement. Some banks even give bonus account balances to new customers and waive domestic card issuance fees, account management fees, and cash withdrawal fees for beneficiaries of social welfare policies...

Thanks to the above solutions, by the end of 2024, the province had achieved remarkable results. At the Provincial Public Administration Service Center, the rate of electronic tax payments reached 64.48%, with 58,808 transactions, an increase of 153% compared to the same period last year. In the tax sector, 100% of businesses and 91% of individual business households have registered for electronic tax payment. For electricity and water services, Thanh Hoa Power Company achieved an electronic tax payment rate of 97.24% among its 815,036 customers; Thanh Hoa Water Supply Joint Stock Company had 37% of its customers paying electronically, an increase of 60% compared to the previous year.

In the education and healthcare sectors, 100% of educational institutions and all 69 healthcare units in the province have accepted cashless payment methods. Cashless tuition fees accounted for 68% of the total collected fees; cashless hospital fee payments accounted for 30% of the total hospital fees collected.

As of November 30, 2024, the province had over 3.1 million active individual accounts, averaging nearly 2 accounts per person aged 15 and above. The number of cashless transactions reached over 251 million, with a turnover of 1.6 trillion VND, an increase of 67% in volume and 15% in value compared to the previous year. Regarding e-commerce, the province's ranking reached 23 points, placing it 17th nationwide, an increase of 3 positions compared to 2023, with e-commerce sales accounting for 2.26% of total retail and service sales.

However, the implementation of cashless payment still faces several challenges, such as the banking network not yet covering all remote areas, communes far from district, town, and city centers, and mountainous regions; people's apprehension about transaction security; and the lack of infrastructure uniformity among service providers.

In 2025, the province will continue to promote solutions for developing cashless payment systems, including strengthening coordination, promoting propaganda and mobilization, and raising awareness among people and businesses about cashless payments; encouraging organizations, businesses, and the people to effectively implement cashless payments, focusing on the fields of health and education; promoting cashless payments in social welfare payments; encouraging payment service providers, payment intermediaries, and businesses providing goods and services... to implement forms of fee waivers and reductions to promote cashless payments; encouraging schools, hospitals, electricity, water, sanitation, telecommunications, and postal services in urban areas to strengthen coordination with banks and payment intermediaries to collect tuition fees, hospital fees, electricity bills... using cashless payment methods; expanding the payment network to remote areas, strengthening security, and promoting communication to change people's payment habits. In particular, the province will focus on training and guiding the elderly and people in rural and mountainous areas on digital payment skills.

Comment (0)