#Global Economy #UnionPay #Davos

UnionPay's Presentation at Davos 2026

On January 21, 2026, UnionPay was invited to present at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. During a panel discussion titled “Has the Chinese Economy Fully Developed?” Yuan Pay’s Chairman, Mr. Dong Junfeng, and other panelists discussed crucial topics concerning China’s economic development trends, innovation-driven growth strategies, and China’s contributions to the global economy. The dialogue underscored the strong resilience and growth potential of the Chinese economy. Mr. Dong emphasized UnionPay's pivotal role in bolstering domestic circulation, stimulating high-quality production forces, and promoting international economic cooperation.

The State of the Chinese Economy

In the face of rising global economic risks, resilient characteristics define the Chinese economy. In 2025, China's GDP experienced a year-on-year growth of 5%, surpassing ¥140 trillion. Mr. Dong noted that this sustained stability and growth stem from multiple positive factors, including long-term strategic planning, effective governmental policies, greater market vitality, increased consumer spending, and rising domestic demand. Among these, the recent surges in consumer expenditure and local demand were particularly noteworthy.

From a political standpoint, China is continuing to push a new development paradigm that fosters a symbiotic relationship between domestic and international circulation. The 15th Five-Year Plan explicitly advocates for special initiatives aimed at enhancing consumption and expanding the availability of premium consumer goods and services, thereby providing a fundamental guarantee for sustainable economic growth.

On the demand side, new consumption trends, business models, and use cases are rapidly emerging. Data from UnionPay indicates a stable increase in digital payment adoption within China's consumer sector, with thrilling new business models such as live streaming e-commerce, cross-border e-commerce, instant retail, and shared economy gaining significant traction. Expenditures on winter sports and tourism surged over 50%, while cross-border payment interactions steadily grew, with spending by incoming foreign tourists increasing by more than 60%. These trends indicate a transformative shift in household consumption, moving away from traditional products towards diversified, high-quality, and intelligent experiences.

Structural Shifts in Consumer Spending

This change in consumer spending habits is reshaping economic growth drivers, as consumption is propelled by a combination of goods and services rather than solely goods. Such structural modifications prompt a transition to lighter, customized manufacturing processes and accelerate product innovation. UnionPay leverages its strengths in payment systems not only to enhance the quality and scale of the consumer market but also through technological innovations and service modernization. The company is constructing a payment network covering both online and brick-and-mortar stores in domestic and international markets, optimizing payment experiences, and reducing transaction costs.

These initiatives effectively unleash expenditure potential and provide robust support for increased business vitality, making UnionPay a key accelerator of continuous economic growth in China.

Embracing AI to Fuel Productive Forces

UnionPay is vigoriously striving to establish an ecosystem supported by artificial intelligence (AI). Emerging sectors such as AI have become pivotal drivers of productivity enhancement and sustainable economic growth. Mr. Dong highlighted that the recent global AI boom has led to breakthroughs in large language models, multimodal technologies, and intelligent agents, hastening AI’s widespread adoption. By improving efficiency, optimizing models, and transforming ecosystems, AI generates new qualitatively productive forces and becomes a disruptive driver of economic growth. The payment sector, in particular, leads the way in implementing AI applications.

In enhancing efficiency, AI contributes to reduced costs and increased effectiveness in personal productivity, business operations, industrial cooperation, and decision-making through the automation of repetitive tasks, optimization of decision-making processes, expanding production capacity, and eliminating workflow barriers. In payment security, UnionPay has built an intelligent risk management system, where AI-supported risk management protocols form a solid defense line for safe and compliant digital payment development.

UnionPay has also launched the “Nihao China” app for international visitors to China, enhancing service offerings through AI-based intelligent agents that cater to personalized payment requirements. As for model optimization, AI transforms industries from being passively reactive to proactively responding to needs, giving rise to entirely new business models.

Pioneering Innovations in Payment Experience

With leading payment companies venturing into agent-based payments, UnionPay has taken the lead by launching the Merchant-Customer Payment (MCP) service. This service integrates traditional payment options while introducing an innovative agent-supported payment experience, allowing users to complete the entire transaction process seamlessly through conversation—from expressing needs to final payment. This model innovation facilitates payments, making them more adaptable and integrating them with the entire consumer journey, thus presenting a new pathway for the digital modernization of commercial ecosystems.

As businesses enter the era of smart commerce, there is a paradigm shift from 'experience-driven' operations to 'data and intelligence-driven' innovations. AI is transforming payments from mere cash settlement tools to becoming the foundational infrastructure for the intelligent modernization of economic activities. Following a new quadripartite model, UnionPay collaborates with industry stakeholders to explore and develop an agent payment ecosystem. These efforts aim to provide a Chinese solution for smart payments globally and promote the development of a payment industry that is increasingly open, collaborative, and intelligent.

Fostering Global Cooperation for Mutual Benefit

In a world marked by increased uncertainty in trade policies and geopolitical tensions, China remains committed to promoting high-level openness while offering the world opportunities through its own development. As the