Alliex plans to invest $700 million to install a total of 600,000 shared POS devices in Vietnam in the next five years, its director Park Byounggun told Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue at a meeting last week.

The shared POS system will feature new advanced features like QR code, contactless payment, and biometrics.

Alliex has also signed collaboration contracts with private lender Sacombank and the state-owned VietinBank to roll out the POS system in Vietnam.

Park Byounggun said that the shared POS system will help local authorities cut down on cash in circulation and transaction costs, combat tax losses, and speed up payment transactions in a safe and efficient manner, helping the government’s efforts to transform Vietnam into a cashless society.

Deputy Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said that South Korea is a good example for Vietnam to follow in the development of cashless payments, focusing on QR code and a shared POS system. He also suggested that the South Korean firm collaborate with the State Bank of Vietnam to improve the cashless payment system.

Electronic payments in the country increased by 22 per cent in 2017 to $6.14 billion, according to Statista, a local market research firm, which projected the figure to rise to $12.33 billion by 2022.

Economists have said that the potential for cashless payments in Vietnam is huge due to a growing middle class and rapidly improving telecom infrastructure. The Vietnamese government set the target to make 90 per cent of all transactions cashless by 2020.

However, for now, the reliance on cash remains huge. About 80 per cent of Vietnamese prefer to use cash for their daily transactions, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. VIR

Nguyen Huong