Vietnam and Southeast Asia are making the QR code the pivot of a silent financial revolution: pay in local currency, anywhere, without SWIFT, without a currency exchange desk.
At BizTech Forum 2026, consensus is unanimous: cross-border QR payment has moved from pilot project to operational financial infrastructure. The technology born in Japan in the 1990s — ubiquitous and humble — has become a first-rate geopolitical tool.
It connects currencies, erases financial borders, and enables hundreds of millions of people to pay and be paid without a Western intermediary. The dollar-centric model is being quietly, but surely, challenged by a simple square of pixels.
Vietnam is emerging as the regional pioneer. Through its national payment infrastructure NAPAS, the country has multiplied bilateral agreements in recent months, steadily building one of Southeast Asia's most advanced cross-border payment ecosystems.
On April 3, 2026 in Hanoi, NAPAS, in coordination with Ant International and Vietcombank, announced the expanded deployment of cross-border QR payment services between Vietnam and China. The milestone: Chinese tourists can now use Alipay to scan VietQRGlobal codes across the entire NAPAS merchant network in Vietnam.
"This cooperation helps support small and medium-sized enterprises in accessing international markets." — Douglas Feagin, President of Ant International
This project stems from a memorandum of understanding signed between the State Bank of Vietnam and the People's Bank of China during General Secretary Tô Lâm's state visit in August 2024. In parallel, UnionPay International and NAPAS finalized the reverse connection in early 2026, enabling Vietnamese users to scan UnionPay QR codes throughout China.
On April 23, 2026 in Hanoi, a second landmark ceremony marked the official launch of cross-border QR payment services between Vietnam and South Korea. The partnership brings together NAPAS, GLN International, BIDV and Hana Bank, with the Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam in attendance.
The service is built on an agreement signed at the Vietnam–Korea Economic Forum in August 2025. In the first phase, Korean users can scan VietQRGlobal codes at payment points in Vietnam. Transactions are settled in real time through a direct currency exchange between the two banking systems.
In the coming months, NAPAS and its partners plan to improve bidirectional connectivity, enabling Vietnamese users to pay in South Korea via NAPAS member apps.
Beyond bilateral agreements, a coherent regional network is emerging. Vietnam has already joined the ASEAN interconnected QR payment system alongside Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore — enabling Vietnamese travelers to pay in dong across five countries with a simple scan.
| Connection | QR Systems | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇻🇳 Vietnam ↔ 🇨🇳 China | VietQRGlobal ↔ Alipay / UnionPay | Live | Dec. 2025 / Apr. 2026 |
| 🇻🇳 Vietnam ↔ 🇰🇷 South Korea | VietQRGlobal ↔ GLN / Hana Bank | Live | Apr. 2026 |
| 🇻🇳 Vietnam ↔ 🇹🇭 Thailand | VietQR ↔ PromptPay | Live | 2024 |
| 🇻🇳 Vietnam ↔ 🇸🇬 Singapore | VietQR ↔ SGQR | Live | 2024 |
| 🇨🇳 China ↔ 🇮🇩 Indonesia | Alipay ↔ QRIS | Live | May 2026 |
| 🇻🇳 Vietnam ↔ 🇯🇵 Japan / 🇲🇾 Malaysia / 🇮🇩 Indonesia | ZaloPay | Rolling out | 2026 |
The ZaloPay app illustrates this momentum: since March 2025 it became the first Vietnamese app to enable QR scanning across more than 120,000 stores in Singapore's NETS and SGQR network. By late 2025, ZaloPay announced expansion to five Asian countries — Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The reason for the QR payment boom comes down to a simple equation: zero friction for merchants, a familiar experience for customers. No new terminal to install, no contract to sign. The merchant keeps their usual QR code and receives payments in local currency — but now also from foreign customers.
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✨ Try DoItQR for freeBizTech Forum 2026 has confirmed it resoundingly: cross-border QR payment has graduated from experiment to regional financial infrastructure. In a matter of months, Vietnam has signed agreements with China, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore, while ASEAN patiently weaves its local-currency payment network.
The QR code — that small square of pixels — is no longer just a convenience tool. It has become the quiet vector of a reshaping of global financial balances, reducing dollar dependence, smoothing regional trade and giving Asian SMEs direct access to international markets.
For merchants, travelers and enterprises: the payments revolution is already here. It doesn't need SWIFT. It just needs a QR code.