Alipay +, the global digital payment gateway operated by Ant International, has expanded into Argentina by enabling travellers to make QR code payments through the country’ s national Transferencias 3.0 payment scheme in partnership with fintech company PVS.
The integration allows visitors using participating Alipay + partner digital wallets to pay at millions of merchants, including restaurants, shopping centres and tourist attractions, by scanning the same interoperable QR codes used by local consumers. The rollout will take place in phases.
Alipay + connects more than 150 million merchants with over 50 digital wallets and banking apps, reaching around 2 billion user accounts globally. The company said the partnership would help Argentine merchants and small businesses to attract more international customers without changing their existing QR payment infrastructure.
Lucio Colunga, CEO, PVS, said the agreement connected merchants across Latin America to one of the world’ s largest digital payment ecosystems while allowing travellers to pay with familiar wallets.
Weixiao Jiang, General Manager for North Asia and the Americas, Alipay +, said Argentina’ s interoperable payments infrastructure created a foundation for digital commerce and would help increase visitor spending while supporting businesses and tourism.
The announcement follows Alipay +’ s May 2026 partnership with PVS to launch cross-border mobile payments in Argentina and Chile. Ant International has also expanded digital payment initiatives across Latin America, including Mexico and Brazil.
Alongside QR payments, Alipay + NFC, developed with Mastercard, enables compatible wallets including AlipayHK, GCash and Kakao Pay to make contactless payments at Mastercard-enabled merchants across Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Latin American markets.
ARGENTINA
Cirion Technologies restored communications rapidly after earthquakes in Venezuela damaged one of its subsea cables – while continuing work to return international connectivity to full capacity.
The earthquakes severed the company’ s subsea cable near the La Guaira landing station, around 1,800 metres offshore, disrupting international connectivity. Despite the damage, Cirion confirmed that its landing station remained operational following on-site inspections, with infrastructure accessible and functioning normally.
The company restored Caracas’ connectivity ring in less than 48 hours, re-establishing resilience while activating partnerships with international service providers to increase available capacity for customers during the repair period.
Cirion prioritised the restoration of essential services, ensuring that hospitals, banks and grocery retailers regained connectivity before lower-priority services, in line with internationally recognised recovery standards.
The company said its network is operating reliably, with the Caracas connectivity ring running at maximum availability. Additional capacity to international connectivity is being brought online progressively as restoration efforts continue.
Backed by a specialist repair vessel, Ciron has been in Venezuelan waters working alongside authorities to secure approvals for deployment.
Paul Choiseul, Chief Technology and Information Officer, Cirion Technologies, said:“ For more than 25 years, Cirion has provided Venezuela with connectivity infrastructure, an essential service for the country. In this crisis, our priority was people. Our teams worked around the clock to restore critical services, and we were grateful to our employees and partners whose support helped accelerate Venezuela’ s recovery.”
VENEZUELA www. intelligentcio. com
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