Mobile payment company SmartTrans has become one of the first companies to benefit from the new free trade agreement between Australia and China.
The mobile and online payments platform and logistics software provider has inked a deal with China's largest travel services provider, China International Travel Services.
The deal will see SMA build and distribute an App and integrated online platform that will enable Chinese and Australian consumers to book and pay for travel services between the two countries.
The agreement was signed today in Beijing and showcases the new Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Australia and China.
Trade minister, Andrew Robb, and China International Travel Service head office president, Madam Yu Ningning, attended the event.
CITS is a state-owned enterprise that was established in 1954, and is now the largest of its kind in China, with 122 agencies across the country and numerous subsidiaries in key regions globally, including Australia.
SmartTrans will now collaborate with CITS to develop an App and integrated online platform that uses SMA’s mobile billing platform and distribution channels to allow travellers from China and Australia to book and pay for CITS’ travel packages, visa services, flights and hotel bookings, all from the convenience of their mobile telephone via SmartTrans’ mobile application.
The App will have SmartTrans’ unique mobile platform embedded, consolidating the wide range of billing and payment licences and agreements the Company has with its long established partners in China.
SmartTrans is expecting that this latest agreement will provide access to another solid and sustainable revenue stream for the Company, especially with increasing numbers of outbound tourists from China and growing numbers of inbound tourists from Australia with some 720,000 people visiting China in 2013.
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SmartTrans chairman, Dr Geoff Raby (Australia’s former Ambassador to China), said this partnership, with a highly regarded state-owned enterprise, is a great mark of respect for the company's credibility and technology.
“SmartTrans will now work closely with CITS to develop this App and online platform, utilising our mobile payments platform to enable travellers between China and Australia to book and pay for their travel services,” he said.
“We see this partnership, along with the unique consolidation of our multiple payment providers on to one platform as further examples of why our technology provides such a compelling turnkey solution to third parties wanting to do business in China, as well as Chinese businesses who wish to access global markets.”
Raby said the company was now in negotiations with a number of parties wanting to use the company's proprietary platform.
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