The office functions as MasterCard’s communication headquarters in Vietnam and is designed to provide creative and safe payment solutions in the country.

It will also help develop business relations between MasterCard and banks. Card-holders will help Vietnam to become a country with alternatives to cash payment.

For many years, MasterCard has successfully cooperated with Vietnamese partners in launching creative payment solutions such as debit cards for young customers, intelligent credit cards and chip cards. It also helped bolstering Vietnam’s tourism industry by bringing tours of Asia-Pacific MasterCard holders to the country.

The vice president and director of MasterCard Worldwide in Indochina, Ai June Schult, said Vietnam has sustained GDP growth for over five years and is expected to become one of the leading tourism destinations in the world by 2016. Thus, MasterCard needs to implement more creative payment solutions to serve the country’s consumers, she said.

The fourth-quarter MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Confidence survey this year shows that Vietnam has the highest consumer confidence in the region, she said.