Vietnam Needs 15 Years to Become Free from Cash Economy
Vietnam will need at least 15 years or even longer to escape from being a primarily cash economy, according to a scheme on non-cash payment development in 2006-2010 and vision towards 2020 launched by the State Bank of Vietnam.
Vietnam has been so far considered a cash economy. Cash contributes to more than 17 per cent of total payment tools.
In 1997, cash accounted for 32.2 per cent of payments and ten years later, or up till now, the ratio is reduced to only 21.4 per cent.
Under the scheme, Vietnam targets to reduce payments in cash to 17 per cent by 2010 and to 10 per cent by 2020. However, such a ratio is still much higher than that in other regional countries.
At present, cash makes up between 11 per cent and 17 per cent of payments in Southeastern countries such as Singapore and Thailand and it is below 1 per cent in developed countries such as Sweden and Norway.
The State Bank also targets to install point of sales (POS) in 70 per cent of trade centers, supermarkets, restaurants, hotels and buy-it-yourself shops by 2010 and the figure is expected to increase to 90 per cent by 2020.
The country expects to have 20 million individual accounts in next five years, 70 per cent of which will be used to pay for salaries.
60 per cent of State budget expenses and 70 per cent of public payments will be conducted via account transfers by 2010 and both will increase to 90 per cent by 2020, according to the scheme.
In next 15 years, 100 per cent of payments between enterprises will be carried out via bank accounts.
Vietnam Economic Times
Vietnamese
