Kazakhstan, China To Launch Cross-Border QR Payments by End-2026

Kazakhstan plans to launch QR-code payments with China by the end of 2026 – a move that analysts say could expand the yuan’s use beyond trade and investment into everyday transactions while offering a “gentle yet substantive” alternative to the US dollar.

The decision comes as Beijing is deepening trade and financial ties under China’s Belt and Road Initiative, while advancing the yuan’s use in cross-border transactions amid a broader de-dollarisation trend.

The Central Asian country is preparing to introduce cross-border payment services with 11 countries, including China, India, the United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, according to comments on Friday from Binur Zhalenov, deputy governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan.

The payment system with China is expected to begin operating by year-end, allowing citizens of both countries to make payments using mobile QR codes while visiting each other’s countries, Zhalenov said at a fintech summit in Almaty, according to state news agency Kazinform. Systems with other countries are tentatively scheduled to launch from mid-2027.

The move “signals that yuan internationalisation is extending deeper into everyday consumer transactions, moving beyond major trade settlements”, said Liu Feng, chief economist at the International Institute of Green Finance at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

“Payment habits represent the most fundamental usage of a currency. When Kazakh residents can scan and pay as easily as [Chinese people], the network effect of the yuan begins to take root at the retail level,” Liu said, adding that this could help move the yuan from a settlement tool to a regional payment currency. Kazakhstan’s adoption could also give China an early foothold in establishing yuan-based payment standards in Central Asia, Liu said.

“As a key hub of the Belt and Road Initiative, Kazakhstan’s adoption effectively embeds yuan payment standards into Central Asia,” he explained. “As neighbouring economies align with these systems, it creates a network effect and path dependency - offering a gentle yet substantive alternative to the dominance of the US dollar and euro.”

The planned system builds on existing cooperation between the two countries’ payment platforms. In 2024, Kazakhstan’s all-in-one payments app, Kaspi.kz, partnered with Chinese payment app Alipay to enable Kaspi users to make mobile payments in China. Alipay is owned by Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post.

The expansion comes as Beijing seeks to broaden the yuan’s global use amid a wider push to reduce reliance on the US dollar.

“The internationalisation of the yuan is a continuous and steady process, and an irreversible trend,” Lu Lei, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, said at a press conference on Thursday.

To support the yuan’s expansion, Lu said the central bank would expand cross-border use cases for the digital yuan and QR-code payments.