More than 3,000 merchants – and all of Abu Dhabi’s near 7,000 taxis – will start offering Alipay+’s cross-border digital payment solutions in the UAE from this month.

This will allow Alipay+’s 1.4 billion plus digital wallet users to do transactions while on visits to the UAE, using their home e-wallets. They can do so devoid of any currency conversion needs

Under the deal, UAE-based Payby merchant network can start accepting six Alipay+ partner e-wallets.

This would be for tourists from China, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Italy.

This comes as part of an arrangement with Dubai-based Astra Tech, which becomes one of the first in the region to launch Alipay solutions. Astra Tech already operates the Payby and Botim platforms.