Ant International and LankaPay have officially launched Alipay+ in Sri Lanka through LANKAQR, the country’s national QR code standard introduced by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
With the rollout now live, travellers from 10 countries and regions can use 14 Alipay+ partner e-wallets to make payments at over 400,000 merchants across Sri Lanka by scanning the LANKAQR code.
Supported wallets include Alipay (Chinese mainland), AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR), MPay (Macao SAR), Hipay (Mongolia), GCash (Philippines), Changi Pay and OCBC Digital (Singapore), Touch ‘n Go eWallet and MyPB by Public Bank Berhad (Malaysia), Naver Pay and Toss Pay (South Korea), TrueMoney (Thailand), BigPay (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand), and Tinaba (Italy).
The launch in Sri Lanka builds on Alipay+’s growing presence across Asia.
It has already partnered with national QR code systems in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Cambodia, and Nepal to support cross-border payment acceptance.
The initiative is expected to support Sri Lanka’s tourism recovery, which saw a 38% rise in visitor arrivals in 2024.
Authorities are targeting 3 million tourist arrivals and US$5 billion in revenue in 2025.
By allowing international visitors to use familiar payment apps, the move aims to boost convenience for travellers while creating more business opportunities for local merchants.
LANKAQR, launched in 2020, is managed by LankaPay and provides a unified digital payments platform across banks and merchants in the country.
Ant International and LankaPay plan to expand Alipay+ acceptance and explore joint promotional efforts to increase adoption.
Channa de Silva, CEO of LankaPay, said,
“This partnership connects us with international Alipay+ partner users worldwide, enabling them to make seamless payments during their visit to Sri Lanka, similar to their experience at home. This collaboration signifies our commitment to enhance payment convenience to tourists and business travellers to Sri Lanka and attract much needed foreign exchange into the country.
Our aim is to support the country’s booming tourism sector with seamless and secure digital payments providing a greater convenience to the travellers whilst providing a cost-efficient digital payment acceptance mechanism to local merchants.”
Edward Yue, General Manager for Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Ant International said,
“The national LANKAQR infrastructure by the Sri Lanka Central Bank and LankaPay lays a strong foundation for the digitalisation of local businesses and we’re proud to partner with LankaPay to enhance interoperability and connect global customers to the local payment ecosystem.
Tourism will be a significant driving force in the global economy and based on trends we are seeing, Sri Lanka will significantly benefit, as travellers seek rich cultural, nature and unique experiences.”
