With the implementation of the Belt and Road initiative, UnionPay is accelerating its business expansion in Central Asia. The other day, President of China UnionPay Shi Wenchao met with the First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus, Vasily Matyushevsky, in Minsk, and the two sides reached a consensus on promoting UnionPay card acceptance and issuance as well as the upgrade of bankcard switch network in Belarus. Shi Wenchao also met with Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Belarus Dmitry Kalechits, General Manager of Belcard, the local switch network, Yelena Nesterenko, as well as heads of the local major banks.

Matyushevsky said, UnionPay is not only a payment service provider, but also an innovator in the field of financial payment. The government of Belarus supports the development of the payment industry and welcomes UnionPay to bring more innovative products and services to Belarus. The government hopes that the Belarussian institutions can cooperate with UnionPay in even larger scale. We’d like to see UnionPay and Belcard become strategic partners so that Belarus may draw on UnionPay’s chip card standard and experience in network building to upgrade its local payment system. Belarus will also support UnionPay in expanding business to other countries of the Eurasian Union and is willing to collaborate with UnionPay to establish a switch network platform so as to promote the development of the payment industry in the region.

Shi Wenchao said, UnionPay will take this meeting as an opportunity to strengthen its cooperation with the Belarussian government and the payment industry to help enhance the service capability of the local financial institutions and accelerate the construction of a cashless society. First, UnionPay will expand its acceptance network to meet cardholders’ diverse payment demands. Second, UnionPay will issue cards locally, especially UnionPay chip cards, to support the chip migration of the local payment industry. Third, UnionPay will launch innovative payment products to meet the institutions’ demands for conducting mobile and online payment business. Moreover, UnionPay is willing to reach in-depth cooperation with Belcard as soon as possible.

Belarus is a significant country along the Silk Road Economic Belt. China and Belarus have formed close cooperation in the fields of trade and infrastructure construction. The personnel contacts between the two countries are increasingly frequent too. Now, GazpromBank has enabled its ATMs and merchants to accept UnionPay cards, and BPS-Sberbank is accelerating its cooperation with UnionPay International in card acceptance and issuing. At the same time, UnionPay International also reach consensus with Belagroprombank and BELARUSBANK on cooperation in fields in card acceptance and issuance, QR code payment, NFC payment, UnionPay e-wallet and other innovative services.