Chongqing - In the bustling streets of modern China, a groundbreaking trend has taken hold: mobile payments reign supreme with an astounding 86% adoption rate, catapulting the nation to the forefront of global financial innovation. 

Yet, amidst the convenience of touch-and-go and scan-and-pay technologies, a new set of challenges has surfaced, particularly impacting foreign nationals accustomed to traditional card-based transactions.

A special "International Guests Payment Service Demonstration Point" is now available at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport for better payment services. Located at the arrival exits for flights from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and other countries, it aims to offer higher quality, efficiency, and convenience to foreign nationals and other travelers.

Upon arrival in Chongqing, foreign nationals can promptly access services like cash withdrawals using foreign cards, currency exchange, and payment service consultations.

By the end of August this year, Chongqing will further improve payment services to cater to the varied needs of foreign nationals, ensuring seamless payments citywide for short-term travel or longer stays for study, work, or residence.

Since March, banks in Chongqing have proactively enhanced the banking card acceptance environment, optimized cash usage, and improved mobile payment convenience. By March's end, over 1050 bank branches in the city were offering foreign currency exchange services.

From January to March 2024, international visitors in Chongqing made 307,000 transactions via mobile payment apps like Alipay and WeChat, amounting to 36.947 million yuan.

Export-focused manufacturers secure majority of loans

"Over the past year, a total of 54 billion yuan in loans was issued, primarily directed towards foreign trade industries, connectivity infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing," said Xia Hongbo, the Export-Import Bank of China Chongqing Branch's branch manager, during an interview.

In April last year, the Chongqing Municipal People's Government and the China Export-Import Bank signed a strategic cooperation agreement to boost the city's development of an open economy.

As of the end of March, export-oriented manufacturing enterprises accounted for more than two-thirds of all loans. The manufacturing sector had a loan balance of 33.65 billion yuan, representing 36.9% of all loans, and led the industry in the balance of medium and long-term loans.

Xia added that last year, about three billion yuan in new loans supported channel logistics and industrial park enterprises for logistics development. 

Additionally, loans for Chongqing's import and export businesses with ASEAN increased by 7.7 billion yuan to bolster economic and trade cooperation. Over 1.2 billion yuan in new loans were allocated to the highway network construction for the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor's transportation infrastructure.

"Our branch actively plays the role of a policy bank, initially providing 579 million yuan in fixed asset loans to support the stabilization and growth of enterprises, facilitating further strategic investor equity financing support," Xia explained.

Xia mentioned their active support for the China-Europe Railway Express (Yuxinou). For instance, in collaboration with the Chongqing International Logistics Hub Park, their branch employs the "financing + intelligence" model. 

Xia added, relying on the Chongqing Pan-European Railway Port Management Co., Ltd., an international logistics booking platform, their branch issued 600 million yuan in working capital loans. This further supports Chongqing's efforts in establishing a land port-type international logistics hub.