CCTV***On March 1, the ** Information Office held a regular briefing on *** policy, and the relevant responsible persons of the People's Bank of China, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments introduced the relevant situation of the "Opinions on Further Optimizing Payment Services and Improving Payment Convenience". The People's Bank of China said that there are three major problems in the inconvenience of foreign personnel in China, and through comprehensive measures, phased results have been achieved. In the next step, the People's Bank of China will further cooperate with relevant departments to step up efforts to further improve the quality and efficiency of payment services.
Zhang Qingsong, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said that the first difficulty in the inconvenience of foreign personnel in China is that the overseas bank card payment rate is much higher than the domestic bank card payment rate, the second difficulty is that the number of merchants accepting overseas bank cards is small, and the third difficulty is that merchants sometimes have no change to find change.
In view of these problems, the People's Bank of China has put forward a special work plan. On the one hand, according to accelerating the acceptance of overseas bank cards opened by merchants, at the same time, optimizing the bank account opening services for foreign personnel in China, and promoting the binding of overseas bank cards to Alipay or WeChat more conveniently.
According to statistics, nearly 4 million inbound people will use mobile payment in 2023, and the actual number of transactions will exceed 70 million. At present, the acceptance coverage rate of outdoor cards of key businesses in Shanghai, Zhejiang and other places has exceeded 90%. In the next step, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange will further optimize the foreign currency exchange service.
Liu Bin, director of the current project management department of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said that the airport foreign currency exchange service guarantee should be done, guide the priority of foreign currency exchange institutions and facilities at the airport arrival gate, and encourage qualified individuals to expand the currency of foreign currency exchange and bank outlets, so as to better meet the exchange needs of people from different countries and regions in China.
Payment facilitation will be upgraded for key cultural tourism scenarios.
In order to promote the facilitation of payment for foreign tourists when they travel to China, at the regular policy briefing held by the *** Information Office on March 1, the head of the relevant department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that with the support of the People's Bank of China, he will actively promote the optimization of the inbound payment environment.
The person in charge of the Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that at present, Beijing is promoting the upgrading of the city's wild card acceptance capacity in key business districts, scenic spots, parks, hotels and other important scenes, and has established a demonstration area for overseas guest payment services at the Capital International Airport and Daxing International Airport. Shanghai is deploying and promoting the opening of wild card POS machines in three-star and above hotels, 3A-level and above tourist attractions and other places to optimize the payment service for overseas tourists.
In the next step, we will promote the establishment of software and hardware facilities required to accept mobile payment, bank cards, cash, etc., such as national 4A-level and above scenic spots, national tourist resorts, national night culture and tourism consumption clusters, and national tourism and leisure blocks, and upgrade payment facilitation for key cultural and tourism scenes such as tourist attractions, resorts, and cultural and museum venues. Guide and support internet platform enterprises closely related to food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping, and entertainment, and optimize the payment experience for inbound personnel to purchase cultural and tourism products and services online and offline.
Shi Zeyi, head of the Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, introduced that in terms of the facilitation of ticket purchase and entry into the scenic spot, it will promote the retention of artificial windows in tourist attractions to provide offline ticket purchase and other services for the majority of tourists, including the elderly and inbound tourists, and at the same time, it will also simplify the online ticket purchase reservation process to provide a better experience for the majority of tourists.
Multi-departmental collaboration to further promote payment facilitation.
Payment services are among the most basic financial services. On March 1, the ** Information Office held a regular briefing on *** policy to introduce the "Opinions on Further Optimizing Payment Services and Improving Payment Convenience". At the briefing, the heads of several departments said that they would increase coordination and cooperation between departments to optimize the convenience of payment, especially for the elderly and foreigners.
The People's Bank of China said that it will focus on key areas such as mobile payment, bank card acceptance, cash payment, and bank branch services, and further improve the service level of payment for aging.
Zhang Qingsong, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said that focusing on key convenience scenarios such as public utility payment, scenic spots, shopping malls, and medical care, traditional payment methods such as cash and bank cards will be retained. Continuously optimize mobile payment services. Ensure that the elderly group can use and know how to use, and continue to bridge the digital divide.
It will also promote merchants in key business districts to open foreign card acceptance functions, and set up foreign currency exchange service points in key areas. The person in charge of the relevant department of the National Development and Reform Commission said that it will continue to further promote the special rectification work of refusing to accept RMB cash.
Chen Hongwan, director of the Department of Finance, Finance and Credit Construction of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that it will continue to carry out unannounced spot checks on scenes related to people's livelihood and foreign-related scenes, verify clues about refusals, and continue to implement penalties and publicize the refusal to accept RMB cash with a high degree of public concern and a large scope of influence, and include punishment information in the credit records of relevant entities, giving full play to the warning role.
Ticket purchase and payment services and other links to improve the convenience of travel.
In view of the difficulties in the payment of foreigners and the elderly in transportation, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Transport said at the press conference that the convenience of transportation payment will be improved from multiple links such as ticket purchase, payment, and service.
In terms of ticketing channels, we will speed up the popularization of online ticketing, promote the application of e-tickets, and facilitate domestic and foreign personnel to purchase tickets online with ID cards, passports, foreigners' permanent residence permits and other documents. Continue to retain manual ticketing windows and manual ticket check-in methods to facilitate the elderly and foreigners to purchase tickets offline, and at the same time, improve payment methods.
Gao Bo, head of the Transportation Services Department of the Ministry of Transport, said that he actively promoted major domestic online car-hailing platform companies to expand payment channels, and some companies provided foreign friends with the service of "overseas mobile phone number registration + international credit card payment". Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and other cities support foreign friends to bind overseas bank cards through Alipay and UnionPay, and use *** to scan the code to take city buses and rail transit.
It is also necessary to promote the transformation of transportation for the elderly, improve the multilingual signs of transportation hubs, and carry out bilingual broadcasting and service guidance on qualified passenger routes and rail transit stations. Continue to promote the taxi ** car-hailing service and the online car-hailing "one-click ride-hailing" service, and optimize the car rental process for foreigners.
*: CCTV.