Pakistan’s leading fintech platform NayaPay has partnered with China’s ANT Group and Alipay+ for direct payment channel from the country.

At an event in Beijing, NayaPay CEO Danish A Lakhani said that the development marked a monumental milestone in the commercial relationship between China and Pakistan as “we witness establishing the first direct payment channels between our two nations.”

NayaPay users will be able to make payments with their e-money account at Alipay+’s extensive network of 80 million merchants in China as bilateral trade and visits increase.

It was possible through the collaborative efforts of Ant Group, NUCC, and NayaPay, under the auspices of the People’s Bank of China and the State Bank of Pakistan, he added.

“This achievement not only paves the way for a new era of financial transactions but also symbolizes joint innovation between our nations,” Lakhani said in a press release.

NayaPay thus becomes the 11th overseas and 1st Pakistani payments platform to “roam” in China, following AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR, China), Changi Pay (Singapore), HiPay (Mongolia), Kakao Pay (South Korea), MPay (Macao SAR, China), Naver Pay (South Korea), OCBC Digital (Singapore), Toss Pay (South Korea), Touch ‘n’ Go eWallet (Malaysia), and TrueMoney (Thailand).