Tencent CEO proposes electronic ID for ‘Greater Bay Area’ residents to facilitate mobile payments

Tencent CEO Pony Ma Huateng proposed electronic identification for residents in the proposed “Greater Bay Area” covering Hong Kong, Macau and cities in Guangdong province to facilitate mobile payments and as part of a broader drive toward a “digital China”.
Ma said that Hong Kong and Macau residents should be able to link their mainland travel permits to a mobile phone to enable mobile payments. Ma, a National People’s Congress deputy, was speaking in a briefing in Beijing during the annual parliamentary sessions.

Currently, residents in the two cities have to link their ID to a mainland bank account before being able to activate mobile payments using Tencent’s WeChat Pay. There’s a separate WeChat Pay for Hong Kong. 

Ma’s proposal comes as China’s top political advisory body said on Friday that Beijing is pushing forward a plan for more mainland economic integration with Hong Kong and Macau and a blueprint to develop the Greater Bay Area is awaiting approval.

Tencent’s WeChat has evolved from being a messaging app to becoming a platform for everything from gaming to payments to social media. It also acts as an electronic social security card while a trial is underway for the platform to store an electronic version of the national ID card that eventually be accepted for transactions without need for the physical card.