Facilitating Cross-border Payments for Chinese and Cambodian Residents: UnionPay-powered Wallets Achieve Significant Transaction Growth in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Sept. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Under the joint guidance of the People's Bank of China and the National Bank of Cambodia, UnionPay International has further enhanced QR payment connectivity between the two countries, with positive results increasingly apparent. The value of transactions made in Cambodia by Chinese UnionPay-powered wallets from January to July 2025 nearly tripled year-on-year, demonstrating the strong vitality of the bilateral payment cooperation.

In November 2023, the central banks of China and Cambodia signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation, paving the way for QR payment linkage. In December of the same year, Cambodia's national QR standard KHQR became interoperable with over 200 UnionPay-powered wallets around the world, including the UnionPay App and mobile banking apps of major Chinese commercial banks. Starting from March 2025, users of the Bakong App, owned by Cambodia's national payment system Bakong, can make QR payments at merchants in UnionPay's QR network worldwide and in WeChat Pay's QR network in China's mainland, marking UnionPay's achievement of two-way QR linkage with a counterpart in Southeast Asia for the first time.

Notably, people-to-people exchanges between the two countries have increased with the launch of the "China-Cambodia Tourism Year 2025". Data shows that there were about 587,000 visits from China to Cambodia in the first half of 2025, up by 51% year-on-year. Almost all merchant POS terminals and 80% of the ATMs in Cambodia accept UnionPay card payments and cash withdrawals. With QR connectivity initiatives like this one, scan-to-pay, which is familiar to Chinese nationals, becomes available to them in other countries as well, ensuring better payment experience when they travel abroad.

Currently, the QR payment linkage is increasingly embedded in the retail ecosystems of China and Cambodia. With KHQR—the development of which was led by the National Bank of Cambodia—adopted by almost all QR merchants in the country, UnionPay QR payments are increasingly popular in places ranging from Phnom Penh International Airport to Angkor Wat. At the same time, a growing number of Cambodians visiting China are using the Bakong App to make convenient purchases at UnionPay merchants in China's mainland, including department stores, food and beverage, etc.

UnionPay has launched or is working on QR payment linkage with the local switches of 19 countries and regions outside China's mainland. As a result, tens of millions of merchants overseas will accept UnionPay QR payments. Looking ahead, UnionPay will strengthen cooperation with local partners to advance two-way interoperability projects in order to benefit consumers.