The Asia Pacific region is one of the largest users of smart cards, so much that it now leads the world in using the cards to pay for travel, reports iTWire.

A report by CARTES Network reveals that many Asia Pacific cities and regions, such as Hong Kong, now use smart cards to cover transactions across metro, buses, ferries and more. “Major cities across Asia Pacific are way ahead of many countries around the world in terms of using smart cards,” said Isabelle Alfano, director of CARTES events.

Japan uses a vast array of transport cards, Beijing and Shanghai commuters use the Yikatong, Singapore uses the EZ-Link smart card, and Taiwan has the EasyCard. Most recently, New Delhi’s government launched a common mobility card, dubbed More, and New Zealand is currently working with Octupus to develop a transport card for 2012.

With the advances in NFC technology and an increasingly strong support from the government, CARTES says it also expects that NFC mobile phone payments for transport and groceries could replace smart cards across major cities such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore in the future due to the fact that these cities have.

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