Hong Kong tourists in Thailand may be able to use Faster Payment Service for mobile payments in shops, restaurants

Name: ‘We don’t welcome those tourists’: Thailand’s health minister discourages weed-smoking visitors
Uploaded: 2022-09-09T09:32:57.000Z
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Description: ‘We don’t welcome those tourists’: Thailand’s health minister discourages weed-smoking visitors

HKMA is exploring with the Bank of Thailand a bilateral arrangement to allow visitors to make mobile phone payments

Under the agreement, Thai visitors would be able to use their local faster payment system, PromptPay, in Hong Kong too

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Tourists in the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok on July 18, 2022. Photo: AFP

Enoch Yiu

Published: 5:32pm, 9 Sep 2022

Hong Kong tourists travelling to Thailand in the future may be able use their mobile phones to pay for shopping and food via the Faster Payment System (FPS).

The central banks of the two destinations are working on a project to enhance cross-border payments, and help pave the way for a recovery of the tourism industry after the pandemic. The scheme would afford Thai tourists visiting Hong Kong the same benefits.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the city’s de facto central bank, is exploring with the Bank of Thailand a bilateral arrangement allowing people to use FPS in Thailand to make payments to shops and restaurants, according to the authority’s deputy chief executive, Howard Lee.

Under the agreement, Thai visitors would be able to use their local faster payment system, PromptPay, in Hong Kong.

“We hope that as the pandemic eases and tourism gradually recovers, we can provide one more safe and fast payment option for Hong Kong people travelling outside or overseas visitors coming to Hong Kong, giving them a brand new experience,” Lee said in an article on the HKMA’s website on Friday.

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‘We don’t welcome those tourists’: Thailand’s health minister discourages weed-smoking visitors

Thailand has been a popular holiday destination for Hong Kong people. In the five years to 2019, before the pandemic, an annual average of nearly 900,000 Hongkongers visited the southeast Asian country, while more than 500,000 Thai tourists visited Hong Kong each year, data from the two governments showed.