OREANDA-NEWS. January 28, 2013. Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC) and China UnionPay Co., Ltd. (China UnionPay) jointly launched the new Southeast Asia Tourist Card at a ceremony in Beijing. Mr. Zhang Yun, President of ABC, Mr. Cai Huaxiang, Vice President of ABC, and Mr. Xu Luode, President of China UnionPay, attended the ceremony, reported the press-centre of ABC.

As people’s living standards increased, the outbound travel market in China has expanding rapidly in recent years. Southeast Asia, with its superior geographical location and beautiful natural scenery, is widely popular among Chinese tourists. The Southeast Asia Tourist Card issued by ABC is both a travel-purposed debit card for Chinese tourists engaged in international travel as well as a financial IC card offering UnionPay quality of acceptability and protective features. As such, the card offers the standard financial functions of general debit cards, and yet is as secure as financial IC cards. Cardholders can enjoy discounts by using the card at over 1,000 contracted merchants in Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao.

Throughout 2013, ABC will cooperate with China UnionPay to promote the card throughout the country. As time goes on, the two parties will provide cardholders with more exclusive rights and benefits covering more services in even more countries and regions. The parties plan to offer travel packages to cardholders, such as select tour routes and exclusive outbound travels, so as to meet the ever-diversifiying travel demands of cardholders.