Recently, news has come out that Thailand’s National ITMX Co., Ltd. (NITMX), as an infrastructure service provider for Thailand’s national payment system, is responsible for the transaction management and exchange functions between Thai banks and is currently actively promoting the expansion of cooperation at the international level.
NITMX has established cooperative relationships with three major payment service providers from China, namely UnionPay International, Ant International and Tenpay Payment Technology Co., Ltd.
After signing the memorandum of understanding and continuing to promote system docking, the cross-border payment systems between Thailand and China will achieve full interconnection.
This cooperation is of great significance. It is not only the docking of the payment infrastructures of China and Thailand, but also an important starting point for Thailand’s financial system to connect to the global payment network. It will help enhance Thailand’s digital payment hub status in Asia and promote the overall upgrade of the payment system in a safe, stable and consistent with international standards.
According to the latest data released by NITMX in December 2025, the total amount of cross-border QR code payment inbound transactions reached 809.74 million baht, an increase of 143% from the same period last year. This data reflects the rapid jump in foreign tourists’ consumption through digital payment systems.
Among the top three countries with the highest cross-border QR code payment transaction value in December 2025, China ranked first with a transaction value of 409.92 million baht; Malaysia ranked second with a transaction value of 174.99 million baht; Laos ranked third with a transaction value of 70.56 million baht.
Chinese tourists have jumped to the top of the list in terms of the amount spent via Thai QR, which is seen as a major milestone.
It clearly reflects that China-Thailand cross-border payment cooperation has not only remained at the policy level, but has become a system that can be actually used.
The implementation of this system has effectively reduced the payment barriers for tourists.
For Chinese tourists, they no longer need to worry about currency exchange and other issues when spending money in Thailand. They can simply use familiar payment methods to complete transactions, which greatly improves the convenience of consumption.
At the same time, this also brings more business opportunities to Thai operators.
More Chinese tourists are willing to spend money in Thailand, thus stimulating the development of Thailand’s tourism industry.
Thailand’s many tourist attractions, hotels, restaurants and shopping venues can benefit from this cooperation, which will in turn drive the prosperity of related industries and provide substantial support to Thailand’s overall economic growth.
The continuous deepening of cross-border payment cooperation between China and Thailand has injected new vitality into the economic exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, and has also opened up broader prospects for the development of digital payments in Thailand.
In the future, as cooperation between the two parties continues to advance, it is believed that cross-border payments between China and Thailand will become more convenient and efficient, bringing more benefits and convenience to the people of the two countries.
