Thứ Tư, 5 tháng 6, 2013

Visa, MasterCard See Mobile Payments Growth in Myanmar

Visa Inc. (V) and MasterCard Inc. said

payments using mobile phones will help Myanmar reduce the use of

cash when wireless networks are rolled out across Southeast

Asia
’s poorest country starting this year.


The world’s biggest electronic payments companies

emphasized the potential for mobile-phone payments in Myanmar,

where the government is preparing to grant two new

telecommunications licenses at the end of this month.


“In markets where you don’t have that fixed infrastructure

in place, it may well be that mobile acceptance is going to be

the way to go,” Matthew Driver, MasterCard’s Southeast Asia

head, said in an interview yesterday in Naypyidaw. “There’s a

great opportunity to leapfrog.”


Making mobile phones available to the wider population in

Myanmar, where fewer than one in 10 out of 64 million people now

own a handset and the majority of transactions are made in cash,

would make electronic payments possible. This would mirror the

development in the last few years in African countries such as
Kenya, where a mobile money transfer system is used to transact

more than $900 million a month.


“Some of these economies in terms of telephony, they’ve

leaped forward one whole generation, they never had good fixed-line connections,” said Sandy Mehta, chief executive officer of

Value Investment Principals Ltd. in Hong Kong. “They’ve skipped

the fixed lines of the 1980s and 1990s. That makes sense for

players like MasterCard (MA) and Visa.”


Visa and MasterCard are among attendees at the three-day
World Economic Forum on East Asia hosted by Myanmar this week.


Telecom Rollout


Myanmar is in the final stage of selecting winners for its

telecom licenses. The country plans to boost coverage to as much

as 80 percent by 2016 and to make services affordable, the

government said in January. There were 5.44 million mobile-phone

subscribers as of December, or 9 percent of the population.


With mobile payments, “there’s less capital involved and

they don’t have to go through the brick and mortar of having

ATMs and branches,” Mehta said. “When they are targeting the

younger generation on a go-forward basis, mobile payments makes

a lot of sense.”


Bidders for the licenses in the final round include
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (ST) together with KBZ Group and

Myanmar Telephone Co.; a consortium led by Digicel Group Ltd.,

billionaire George Soros and Myanmar property developer YSH

Finance Ltd.; and Norway’s Telenor ASA.


African Model


People in frontier markets are more likely to get a

wireless handset before a bank account or even a fixed-line

telephone, providing an opportunity for payment networks and

phone companies to offer mobile payment services.


“We are hoping Myanmar can leverage some of the

opportunities” with mobile payments, Peter Maher, Visa’s

Southeast Asia head, said in an interview in Naypyidaw, the

nation’s capital, yesterday. “The people in Myanmar have no

legacy issues, so they can take advantage of the digital era.”


Kenya’s Safaricom Ltd., in which Vodafone Group Plc owns a

40 percent stake, is the inventor of M-Pesa, a mobile money-transfer system that is used to transact 80 billion shillings

($940 million) a month. Kenya is the most advanced country for

mobile payments, Visa said Feb. 13.


More transactions are carried out using M-Pesa within Kenya

than are processed globally by Western Union Co. (WU), the world’s

biggest money-transfer business, according to the International

Monetary Fund
.


First Mover


MasterCard became the first payments network to issue a

license to a Myanmar bank in September when it signed an

agreement with Co-Operative Bank Ltd., as the Southeast Asian

nation moves toward integrating with the global financial system

after half a century of military rule.


The card companies expect debit and prepaid cards will be

the first to be introduced in the country, rather than credit

cards, MasterCard’s Driver and Visa’s Maher said.


Visa may first issue prepaid cards for Myanmar businessmen

traveling overseas for work this year so they don’t have to

carry cash with them, Maher said.


“We have a high degree of confidence” that the rollout of

the cards will happen this year, Maher said. To do that, Visa is

working with seven local banks it has partnered with in Myanmar,

including Kanbawza Bank Ltd. and Myanmar Oriental Bank Ltd.


The number of automated teller machines in Myanmar that can

access Visa’s transaction network may double to 300 this year

from the current 150, Maher said.


Tourism Boost


Growth in the country’s tourism industry will be the main

driver for electronic payments, which could help create more

businesses and jobs for local companies, according to Maher and

Driver.


Myanmar plans 38 tourism projects valued at $500 million,

the government said in a joint statement with the Asian

Development Bank
and Norway’s government. With continued

economic, political and social reforms, international visitor

arrivals are forecast to increase sevenfold to as many as 7.5

million in 2020, with tourism receipts set to reach $10.1

billion, according to the statement.


That growth means the tourism industry could provide as

many as 1.4 million jobs by 2020, according to the plan.


President Thein Sein has allowed more political freedom and

loosened economic controls since coming to power two years ago,

prompting nations including the U.S. to ease sanctions and

attracting companies such as Coca-Cola Co., Ford Motor Co. and
Unilever NV. (UNA)


To contact the reporters on this story:

Kyunghee Park in Singapore at

kpark3@bloomberg.net;

Yoolim Lee in Singapore at

yoolim@bloomberg.net


To contact the editor responsible for this story:

Lars Klemming at

lklemming@bloomberg.net



Enlarge image
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Visa to MasterCard See Mobile Use Helping Myanmar Go Cashless


52c49 isWxFud.B1oQ Wyndham Hotel Group debuts two brands in Singapore


Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg


Making mobile phones available to the wider population in Myanmar, where fewer than one in 10 out of 64 million people now own a handset and the majority of transactions are made in cash, would make electronic payments possible.


Making mobile phones available to the wider population in Myanmar, where fewer than one in 10 out of 64 million people now own a handset and the majority of transactions are made in cash, would make electronic payments possible. Photographer: Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg



52c49 i5WxRDWaqVcM Wyndham Hotel Group debuts two brands in Singapore



June 5 (Bloomberg) — Matthew Driver, president for Southeast Asia at MasterCard Inc., talks about the company’s business strategy for Myanmar.

He speaks from the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, with Haslinda Amin on Bloomberg Television’s “Asia Edge.” (Source: Bloomberg)



52c49 ifcG4jSlhNvs Wyndham Hotel Group debuts two brands in Singapore



June 6 (Bloomberg) — General Electric Co. Vice Chairman John Rice talks about investment opportunities in Myanmar and the prospects for the nation’s economic growth.

He speaks from the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, with Haslinda Amin on Bloomberg Television’s “On the Move.” (Source: Bloomberg)



Enlarge image
52c49 itoLTvB6cYwY Wyndham Hotel Group debuts two brands in Singapore


Visa to MasterCard See Mobile Use Helping Myanmar Go Cashless


01e82 ifS dPlxGMYA Wyndham Hotel Group debuts two brands in Singapore


Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg


A man uses a Kanbawza Bank Ltd. (KBZ Bank) automated teller machine (ATM) next to a Co-operative Bank Ltd. (CB Bank) ATM at a shopping mall in downtown Yangon. MasterCard became the first payments network to issue a license to a Myanmar bank in September when it signed an agreement with CB Bank.


A man uses a Kanbawza Bank Ltd. (KBZ Bank) automated teller machine (ATM) next to a Co-operative Bank Ltd. (CB Bank) ATM at a shopping mall in downtown Yangon. MasterCard became the first payments network to issue a license to a Myanmar bank in September when it signed an agreement with CB Bank. Photographer: Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg



Enlarge image
01e82 i4ahqA0E41nw Wyndham Hotel Group debuts two brands in Singapore


Visa to MasterCard See Mobile Use Helping Myanmar Go Cashless


01e82 icRa3rDy.tNc Wyndham Hotel Group debuts two brands in Singapore


Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg


The Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. logos are displayed on the side of an automated teller machine (ATM) as a customer withdraws money at a shopping mall in downtown Yangon. Visa may first issue prepaid cards for Myanmar businessmen traveling overseas for work this year so they don’t have to carry cash with them.


The Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. logos are displayed on the side of an automated teller machine (ATM) as a customer withdraws money at a shopping mall in downtown Yangon. Visa may first issue prepaid cards for Myanmar businessmen traveling overseas for work this year so they don’t have to carry cash with them. Photographer: Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg



Visa, MasterCard See Mobile Payments Growth in Myanmar

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