Multipurpose cash card launched in Kaohsiung

The Kaohsiung City Government yesterday unveiled a multipurpose e-ticketing program that would integrate transportation and shopping payments in the south.

The TaiwanMoney Card will combine credit and e-wallet features on a single IC-chip card. Cardholders will be able to pay fares on buses, ferries and in parking lots, and will also be able to use it at participating gas stations and convenience stores in seven southern areas.

Kaohsiung City and County, Tainan City and County, Chiayi City and County, and Pingtung County will form part of the integrated network.

The first-stage pilot test is scheduled for June.

Similar to using EasyCards in Taipei's mass rapid transit (MRT) system, users can simply hold the TaiwanMoney Card next to special sensing devices to deduct money from the e-wallet, simplifying payments. To use it as a credit card, the card can be swiped through traditional readers.

"This program marks an important step to bring the 6.5 million people in southern Taiwan into a new digital era, making people's lives more convenient," Kaohsiung Mayor and premier-designate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said at a signing ceremony yesterday.

"I hope this program can be gradually expanded to the north so that people can freely travel around the nation with one card," he added.

As part of the Kaohsiung City Government's efforts to boost tourism, a six-partner consortium won the bidding for the project late last year with a tender of NT$300 million (US$9 million). The local government will subsidize NT$130 million, said Dundee Kao (高俊峰), director of Kaohsiung's transportation bureau.

On a four-year contract, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) and E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行) will start issuing the cards within six months and the overall integrated network will be completed by October.

Tina Chiang (江威娜), vice president and business manager of MasterCard International, predicted that 2 million cards will be issued in two years, doubling the critical mass required to make profits.

The team's next major step is to broker deals with the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp and Kaohsiung's yet-to-be-completed MRT system, while trying to make the card program compatible with Taipei's MRT stations, Kao said.

In the north, Taipei Smart Card Corp (台北智慧卡票證公司), the official distributor of the Taipei MRT's EasyCards, is also looking to expand the cards' range of applications to venues outside the transport sector.

"We'll soon invite public bidding so that co-branded credit cards can be issued in the second half of this year," said Charlene Wang (王嘉陵), public relations deputy manager at Taipei Smart Card Corp.