Alipay, Alibaba’s online and mobile payment platform, reached an agreement with Cambodia’s Pi Pay to allow Chinese tourists to use their Alipay wallets at Pi Pay’s network of 1,400 merchants in the country.

Pi Pay, a local mobile payment platform, started rolling out point-of-sale terminals to merchants in the capital city of Phnom Penh in July and plans to expand to Siem Reap and Preah Sihanouk provinces in the near future.

Chinese visitors accounted for nearly a quarter of the 5 million tourist arrivals in 2016: the figure for 2017 is expected to be 40 per cent higher, The Phnom Penh Post reported.

Cherry Huang, GM of Alipay’s cross-border business for South and Southeast Asia, said with Cambodia being a popular destination among Chinese travelers, it is excited to work with Pi Pay to benefit users and at the same time provide an effective platform for local businesses to reach Chinese consumers.

Pi Pay CEO Tomas Pokorny said since its launch it had more than 168,000 downloads and $27 million in transactions and transfers, China Daily reported.