Thailand 3rd highest user of e-payments globally
Thailand recorded 9.7 billion real-time electronic payment transactions last year, putting it in the third position globally after India (48.6 billion times) and China (18.5 billion times).
This data was revealed in a study by ACI Worldwide, Global Data, and Centre for Economics and Business Research.
“Real-time e-payments have helped boost Thailand’s GDP in 2021 by 2.08 per cent, the second-largest GDP increase out of 30 countries covered in the report,” deputy government spokesperson Ratchada Thanadirek said on Monday.
“In 2020 and 2019, Thailand had recorded only 5.24 billion and 2.57 billion real-time payments, respectively.”
She said e-payments in Thailand have risen significantly because they have been adopted by people of all ages and businesses of all sizes. In addition, Thailand has a comprehensive payment infrastructure that made the transition from cash payment easy.
“The widespread adoption of real-time e-payment is a result of the national e-payment policy which was first introduced in 2015. Since then, we have launched several successful projects that use the e-payment infrastructure, including the state welfare card, government wallet [G-wallet], and the Pao Tang application, which was used in economic stimulus campaigns such as Let’s Go Halves, We Travel Together, and Eat, Shop, Spend,” she added. “The pandemic is also a factor contributing to the surge in popularity of real-time e-payments.”
Ratchada said the government will continue promoting the national e-payment policy by covering more applications. “This policy has helped the public and business sector with economic activities, which will eventually enhance people’s quality of life, boost the country’s competitiveness and improve the ease of doing business in Thailand. The government thanks all public and private parties, financial institutes and the Bank of Thailand for making this policy a reality,” she added.