UnionPay International today announced the issuance of UnionPay co-branded debit cards (card number starting with 62) for the cooperation with Kazkommertsbank (hereinafter referred to as “Qazkom”) and Cemarket, a B2B cross-border e-commerce platform subordinate to Xinjiang Yazhong Company, which is targeted at foreign trade enterprises in Kazakhstan purchasing made-in-China electromechanical products online, for the purpose of providing convenient and secure payment services, and better enhancing the border trade between China and Kazakhstan.

With the implementation of the “One Belt and One Road” strategy, the trade volumes between China and Kazakhstan has witnessed continuous growth, among which electromechanical products represent more than 40% of gross import of Kazakhstan. During the process, the enterprises in Kazakhstan want to improve the efficiency of exchange settlement for trade of large and medium-sized cargoes and change USD from settlement intermediary, thus to lower the transaction cost. Among the three parties who cooperate together to issue the UnionPay co-branded card, Qazkom is one of the largest commercial banks in Kazakhstan, and has made all of its ATMs and merchants accept UnionPay cards; Cemarket, which is a B2B cross-border e-commerce platform targeting at countries along the “Silk Road Economic Belt”.

This UnionPay co-branded card has three advantages: Firstly, it can be conveniently used in UnionPay acceptance network distributed in 160 countries and regions, and enjoy exclusive reward points privileges provided by Qazkom and Cemarket; Secondly, purchasers in Kazakhstan can complete online payment in Tenge, while domestic suppliers can make collections in RMB directly, instead of taking USD as settlement intermediary, which reduces the settlement time of payment for goods and lowers the transaction cost; Thirdly, this card supports the online single payment of large amounts, and thus basically meets the requirement of purchase in terms of large-scale cargoes and bulk commodities online, which is convenient. 

There are over 60 countries and regions along the “One Belt and One Road”, and about 50 of them can accept UnionPay cards currently. In Kazakhstan, 80% of merchants and about 80% of ATMs can accept UnionPay cards. As multiple mainstream institutions have accumulatively issued 1.3 million UnionPay cards, UnionPay cards have turned into the payment products favored by an increasing number of local purchasers, tourists, entrepreneurs and overseas students.