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Agence France-Presse

Nepal on Tuesday said it has banned popular Chinese digital wallets Alipay and WeChat Pay to prevent the loss of foreign currency earnings from tens of thousands of Chinese tourists.
More than 150,000 Chinese holidaymakers visited Nepal last year, many using digital wallets to pay in hotels, restaurants and shops in tourist areas – especially in Chinese-run businesses.
Laxmi Prapanna Niroula, a spokesman for the country’s central bank which announced the ban on Monday, said Nepal was losing out since the actual transactions took place in China.
“We have enforced a ban on Alipay and WeChat Pay because the country is losing foreign currency earnings through its usage. Action will be taken if anyone is found using the platforms,” Niroula said.
Chinese tourists are flooding into Nepal, and the floodgates haven’t even opened
Niroula said there was no information available on the volume of transactions concerned.
Alipay, started by e-commerce giant Alibaba and owned by its affiliate Ant Financial, and WeChat Pay, built into Tencent’s popular messaging service, have hundreds of millions of users between them and are China’s dominant payment platforms.
“Chinese tourists often ask for digital payment options. With the ban, people are bound to lose business,” said Sushil Koirala, who runs a tea shop in Thamel, Kathmandu’s main tourist area.
School of WeChat: China study tours teaching tech to Singapore
A street in Thamel has even earned the name Chinatown because of the high number of Chinese-run hotels and restaurants.
Tourism is a major revenue-earner for Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 metres.
Tourism contributed 7.8 per cent to the Himalayan nation’s economy in 2017, creating over a million jobs, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
Last year it welcomed more than 1 million visitors for the first time.


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Nepal

Nepal bans Chinese digital wallets Alipay and WeChat Pay to prevent loss of foreign currency earnings

Tourism is a major revenue-earner for Nepal.

Chinese tourists are flooding into Nepal, and the floodgates haven’t even opened

Once barely a footnote in the tourism stats of the Himalayan nation, Chinese visitors now compete for prominence and are likely to grow exponentially once infrastructure improvements pave way for more of them

BEGNAS TAL AND RUPA TAL: Feature on 5 hidden gems in Nepal's Western hills. This image shows the lake of Begnas Tal located in the south-east of the Pokhara Valley. [20NOV2014 48HRs TRAVEL LEAD]

Paragliders enjoying a view of the Annurpurna mountain range, Pokhara, Nepal. 48 Hours Magazine, Go Lead, 13JUNE2013

The Qinghai-Tibet railway in China's northwest Qinghai province. Photo: AFP

This Shutterstock shows The Peace Pagoda in Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha [FEATURES] Photo : SHUTTERSTOCK

Undated photo shows Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, new prime minister of Nepal, appointed on Feb. 15, 2018, over two months after his communist alliance won the country's first general election under a federal constitution. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Tourists white-water raft at Bhote koshi river, 70km from Kathmandu. Photo: EPA

‘I was just working’: Nepali mountain guide summits Mount Everest for the 23rd and 24th time in the same week

Nepali mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa at the top of Mount Everest. Photo: AFP

epa07571633 (FILE) - Nepalese 49-year-old veteran mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa prays at Bauddhanath Stupa before he leaves for the Everest summit in Kathmandu, Nepal, 10 April 2019 (reissued 15 May 2019). Kami Rita, a professional mountaineer guide successfully climbed Mount Everest for the 23rd time, decending the mountain on 15 May, to break his previous world record of 22. EPA-EFE/NARENDRA SHRESTHA

FILE - In this April 4, 2019, file photo, record holding Sherpa guide Kami Rita checks oxygen cylinders and other supplies needed for climbing Mount Everest, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Rita has scaled Mount Everest for a 23rd time, breaking his own record for the most successful ascents of the world's highest peak. Officials say Rita reached the summit with other climbers Wednesday morning and all of them were reported to be safe. Rita's two closest peers have climbed the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak 21 times each, but both of them have retired from mountain climbing. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha, File)

All in a week’s work: Kami Rita Sherpa guides people up mountains for a living. Photo: Reuters

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A spokesman for the country’s central bank said Nepal was losing out since the actual transactions took place in China
‘Action will be taken if anyone is found using the platforms,’ Laxmi Prapanna Niroula said


A spokesman for the country’s central bank said Nepal was losing out since the actual transactions took place in China.


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