WING gets A$1.5m grant from Australia

The Phnom Penh Post
http://www.phnompenhpost.com

Written by Hor Hab
Thursday, 30 April 2009

Money to be used for rural expansion project of mobile service

THE Australian government gave a A$1.5 million (US$975,000) grant Wednesday to WING, a mobile payment service and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), through its Enterprise Challenge Fund.

This grant will help support financial literacy, increase income opportunities and provide millions of dollars worth of savings for Cambodians living in rural areas, said Margaret Adamson, Australia's ambassador to Cambodia.

"With this grant, WING will be able to extend its service to rural areas where it would otherwise not have operated," Adamson said.

"Wing will provide approximately 8 million rural Cambodians with the opportunity to access affordable and convenient payment services."

Brad Jones, managing director of WING, said that WING is available across 17 provinces and hopes to continue its expansion with the Australian grant.

"We will use this grant to extend our services to Laos and other Cambodian rural areas," Jones said.

According to Adamson, WING's technology has the potential to save 100,000 rural Cambodians $3 million in transaction costs when the mobile money transfer technology is used instead of traditional methods of transferring cash, often by taxi.

Currently, Wing has around 200 "Cash X-press" agencies, 120 of which are in Phnom Penh.
Earlier this month, WING partnered with mobile operator Hello.

It is also currently in discussion with other telecommunications companies to extend its services across multiple networks.