On December 10, the Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex/PLX) and the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (Napas) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote non-cash payments within the framework of the E-payment Eco-system Development Forum 2019 under the theme “Motivation by Chip Technology” (EPF 2019) in Hanoi.

The MoU signing ceremony

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong, and State Bank of Vietnam’s deputy governor Nguyen Kim Anh presided over the Forum that also witnessed the attendance of more than 350 representatives from domestic and foreign commercial banks, technology companies, hospitals, national and international experts in the fields of economics, banking, Industry 4.0 technology, fintech, payment, card manufacturing and issuance, among others.

The cooperation between Petrolimex and Napas will focus on optimising the experience of customers purchasing fuel at Petrolimex’s petrol stations through: (1) contact and contactless cards via Napas and (2) payment by QR codes used by the State Bank of Vietnam vie mobile applications, payment intermediaries and electronic wallets.

The two sides also agreed to join forces to carry out activities to raise the awareness of cashless payments based on each side’s strengths in line with the Government’s Resolution No 02/NQ-CP dated January 01, 2019 on continued implementation of key solutions to improve business environment, and enhance national competitiveness by 2019 with a vision to 2021.

Speaking at the Forum, the State Bank of Vietnam’s deputy governor Nguyen Kim Anh reiterated a number of orientations that the banking sector needs to focus on in the coming time: “To enhance exchanges and coordination to promote card usage in Vietnam in line with the world general trend and to ensure security, safety and sustainable development; actively contributing to the development of e-payment within residential areas, timely applying advanced technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) in the banking sector’s payment activities; which helps to bring comfort for the local people as well as increase their trust thanks to safe and more secure transactions by cards, and facilitate banks to develop new and modern payment features; opening opportunities for domestic cards to integrate internationally”.

Petrolimex’s deputy director general Luu Tuyen said: “For service-trading businesses, electronic payment helps provide services quickly, safely and economically; concurrently facilitates businesses to evaluate, classify customer database through the exploration of electronic data; and helps improve the operational efficiency, reduce risks, and increase the experience of customers; especially with large-scale business like Petrolimex.

With a significant step in the cooperation with Napas, Petrolimex determines to pursue the goal of developing a system of civilised and modern petrol stations; improving service quality throughout the whole network; strengthening management, openness and transparency; facilitating customers to pay quickly and conveniently; and maintaining the pioneering position in the application of the Industry 4.0 technologies for the sake of customers and concerned parties”.

The Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex with stock symbol of PLX on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange or HoSE) currently holds a major market share with nearly 50 per cent in the domestic petroleum sector with a system of 2,700 petrol stations located across 63 provinces and cities nation-wide. In 2018, Petrolimex reported total revenue of VND191 trillion (US$8.245 billion), and at present the non-cash payment at petrol stations just reaches about VND10 trillion ($432 million).

The MoU proves a deeper cooperation between Petrolimex and Napas after the two sides successfully connected payment service by ATM card via PG Pank’s POS (point of sale) machines installed inside Petrolimex petrol stations nationwide on August 1, 2017.