On March 26, 2025, within the framework of the Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s official visit to Vietnam, businesses of the two countries exchanged different arrangements of cooperation to promote the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Singapore.
Among those arrangements, the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) has been working with the Network for Electronic Transfers (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (NETS) on implementing the cross-border payment connection services via QR codes between Vietnam and Singapore.
The MOU exchange was attended by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, and leaders of several Ministries, agencies of the two countries.
Under the witness of the two Prime Ministers, NAPAS and NETS exchanged the MoU on the cooperation in implementing the cross-border payment connection services via QR codes between Vietnam and Singapore.
Accordingly, NAPAS and NETS have committed to implementing the cross-border payment connection services using QR codes between Vietnam and Singapore. Customers of NAPAS’s members can make payments via QR codes at NETS’s network of payment acceptance units in Singapore, and vice versa.
The implementation of the cross-border payment connection services via QR codes between Vietnam and Singapore not only brings many practical benefits to the people and visitors in the two countries, but also supports the bilateral trade, investment and tourism activities in the coming time.
The cross-border payment connections are a current trend for many countries in the region and around the world, aiming to promote the use of the local currencies in the payment activities and for the economic development in general.
Implementing the Government's policy and under the direction of the State Bank of Vietnam, NAPAS has been implementing a plan to expand the cross-border payment connections using QR codes with several countries in Asia.
So far, NAPAS has established the connections with Thailand, Cambodia and Lao PDR, and is actively coordinating to establish connections with several other countries, including China, the Republic of Korea, Japan, etc. It is expected that the cross-border payment connection services via QR codes between Vietnam and China will be established within this year.
In addition, NAPAS has also been strengthening its implementation of the technical solutions, gradually improving the service quality by cooperating closely with the domestic banks and payment intermediary service providers to provide cross-border payment services via QR codes to the people in a convenient, fast and safe manner.
HY