After 3 years of implementing the Project on developing non-cash payments (TTKDTM) for the period 2021-2025, Thanh Hoa province has achieved impressive results. Especially in 2024, the province has made strong breakthroughs when the rate of TTKDTM increased sharply in most areas, changing people's money-using habits and contributing to promoting local digital transformation.
People are excited about digital payments
This change is clearly demonstrated through the experiences of many people. At Dong Ve market, Thanh Hoa city, Ms. Le Thi Hue shared her journey from fear to satisfaction with the new payment method: "At first, when bank officials came to the market to guide the use of QR codes, many traders were hesitant. However, with the increasingly popular trend of electronic payments, I boldly registered for a bank account. Now, my business is much more convenient, no longer worrying about counterfeit money or returning small change."
For the elderly like Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy, in Thanh Hoa City, e-commerce has brought many significant benefits. Instead of having to cycle to the ward post office and wait all morning to receive pension as before, now the money is automatically transferred to her account every month. With the facial recognition feature on her smartphone, she can easily pay when going to the market or shopping without having to carry cash. Payment of electricity and water bills is also conveniently done right at home via phone.
In the field of education, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, in Dong Tho Ward, Thanh Hoa City, also highly appreciated the convenience of this form of payment. With two children in middle and high school, paying tuition fees through a bank account helps her save a lot of time. In particular, all revenues are recorded clearly and transparently, and transaction history can be looked up for comparison when needed.
At Thanh Hoa General Hospital, Mr. Le Ba Bach from Trieu Son district also shared the advantages of not having to carry a lot of cash when going to see a doctor. Just by bringing an ATM card or phone, he can easily pay for hospital fees and medicine by scanning the QR code.
Resolute implementation, impressive results
These positive results were achieved thanks to the drastic participation of authorities at all levels and the support of banks and telecommunications businesses.
In particular, the Provincial People's Committee has issued many directive documents and assigned specific tasks to departments, branches and localities. In 2024, the province has focused on three main groups of solutions: developing infrastructure and payment services, promoting electronic payments in public services and enhancing communication and security.
Regarding technical infrastructure, telecommunications enterprises have made significant investments. In 2024, the province built 336 new stations and mobile information transmission towers and installed 698 additional 4G and 5G devices on newly built and existing infrastructure, bringing the total number of existing mobile information transmission equipment to 9,433 stations. Currently, 99.66% of villages and hamlets are provided with mobile broadband Internet, and the province also has nearly 5,000 fixed broadband Internet service points in public areas.
Along with the development of telecommunications infrastructure, the banking payment system has also been strongly upgraded. By the end of 2024, the whole province will have 367 ATMs/CDMs and nearly 4,000 POS machines with 3,951 card payment acceptance points at retail establishments, distribution chains, hotels and continue to expand to medical facilities, Public Administration Service Centers, schools, etc. Banks have focused on developing modern payment services such as opening accounts, opening cards electronically (eKYC), paying and withdrawing money at ATMs using QR Code, contactless chip card payments. Many banks also apply a policy of exempting all digital banking services, including free account maintenance, money transfer fees and no account balance requirements. Some banks even give account balances to new customers and exempt domestic card issuance fees, account management fees, cash withdrawal fees for social security beneficiaries, etc.
From the above solutions, by the end of 2024, the province has achieved remarkable results. At the Provincial Public Administration Service Center, the rate of e-commerce payment accounted for 64.48%, with 58,808 transactions, an increase of 153% over the same period last year. In the tax sector, 100% of enterprises and 91% of individual business households have registered for electronic tax payment. For electricity and water services, Thanh Hoa Electricity Company has achieved a e-commerce payment rate of 97.24% out of a total of 815,036 customers; Thanh Hoa Water Supply Joint Stock Company has 37% of e-commerce customers, an increase of 60% over the previous year.
In the education and healthcare sectors, 100% of educational institutions and all 69 healthcare units in the province have accepted e-commerce. Total tuition fees collected through e-commerce accounted for 68% of the total collected amount; e-commerce hospital fees accounted for 30% of the total collected hospital fees.
As of November 30, 2024, the province had more than 3.1 million active personal accounts, an average of nearly 2 accounts for each person aged 15 and over. The number of e-commerce transactions reached over 251 million transactions, with a turnover of VND 1.6 million billion, an increase of 67% in quantity and 15% in value compared to the previous year. Regarding e-commerce, the province's ranking index reached 23 points, ranking 17th nationwide, up 3 places compared to 2023, with e-commerce sales in total retail and service sales of 2.26%.
However, the implementation of e-commerce still faces some challenges such as the banking network not covering all remote areas, communes far from district centers, towns, cities and mountainous areas; people's concerns about transaction safety and the lack of synchronization in infrastructure among service providers...
In 2025, the province will continue to promote solutions to develop e-commerce, including strengthening coordination, promoting propaganda, mobilizing, raising awareness of people and businesses about e-commerce; encouraging organizations, businesses and people to effectively implement e-commerce; focusing on the fields of health and education; promoting e-commerce in social security payments; encouraging organizations providing payment services, payment intermediaries, enterprises providing goods and services... to implement forms of exemption and reduction of payment service fees to promote e-commerce; encouraging schools, hospitals, electricity, water, environmental sanitation, telecommunications and postal companies in urban areas to strengthen coordination with banks and payment intermediary organizations to collect tuition fees, hospital fees, electricity bills... by e-commerce; expanding the payment network to remote areas, enhancing security and promoting communication to change people's payment habits. In particular, the province will focus on training and instructing digital payment skills for the elderly and people in rural and mountainous areas...
Article and photos: Ngan Ha
Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/dot-pha-trong-chuyen-doi-thanh-toan-khong-dung-tien-mat-239100.htm
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