In the morning of Nov. 27, China UnionPay President Shi Wenchao met with Governor of Serbia Central Bank Jorgovanka Tabakovic in Belgrade. China’s ambassador to Serbia Li Manchang was invited to the meeting too. After the meeting, Shi Wenchao and Jorgovanka Tabakovic signed a MOU.

Over the past few years, Serbia is the country in the Balkan region with the fastest economic growth. The country is drawing large amount of Chinese investment and a large number of Chinese tourists too. At the meeting, Governor of Serbia Central Bank expressed her wish to provide better service for inbound Chinese tourists, enhance the development level of the local financial institutions, and deepen the bilateral trade and economic cooperation between China and Serbia. She also had high anticipation and expectation for the “partnership” between the Central Bank and China UnionPay. 

Shi Wenchao conveyed the greetings from People’s Bank of China, and introduced China UnionPay as well as UnionPay’s global expansion and future plan. Shi Wenchao said, as the world’s largest card scheme in terms of card issuance, UnionPay is present in 162 countries and regions, and is looking forward to establishing close collaboration with Serbia Central Bank and as well as the local commercial banks. 

This meeting is conducted under the invitation from the Serbia Central Bank and with the guidance of People’s Bank of China, in the context of implementing the Belt and Road Initiative. According to the MOU, China UnionPay and Serbia Central Bank will jointly promote the full acceptance of UnionPay cards in Serbia. The two will also promote the local issuance of UnionPay cards and will carry out cooperation in chip standard licensing and payment innovation. Leveraging its experience in non-cash payments, UnionPay will share its products, technologies, rules and standards with the financial institutions in Serbia, to promote the building of mobile payment scenarios in the country and to support the digitalization of the local payment industry. After signing the MOU, the two sides will carry out collaboration as soon as possible, to realize the acceptance and issuance of UnionPay cards in Serbia soon.