PayPal has teamed with a Singapore government agency in a bid to develop and encourage mobile commerce in the city state.
Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) agency has launched a 'digital concierge' programme that aims to speed the growth of the "mobile services ecosystem" in a country where eight out of ten handsets bought are smartphones.
Paypal's m-payments platform will power the programme's infrastructure, helping retailers to accelerate the growth of m-commerce by enabling secure transactions via handsets.
Farhad Irani, VP, Asia Pacific, PayPal, says "Singapore possesses great potential for widespread adoption of mobile commerce as an increasing number of retailers want to use the mobile channel to extend their reach and consumers want easy-to-use, secure payment methods on their mobile phones".
Singapore is an important market for PayPal, housing its new international headquarters, which represents all business outside of the US. In March the firm outlined plans to add more than 100 new staff in the country.