LISBON - About 40 percent of the merchants in Portugal will accept China UnionPay cards, UnionPay International announced Monday.

UnionPay International, a subsidiary of China UnionPay, announced Monday that it reached an agreement with Unicre on enabling all the merchants in Unicre's network to accept UnionPay cards.

An increasing number of Chinese tourists are visiting Portugal and UnionPay cards are the most convenient payment method for them. In 2015, the number of Chinese tourists in Portugal saw a year-on-year growth of about 40 percent.

China UnionPay chairman Ge Huayong said the Chinese company plans to enable all POS terminals in Portugal to accept UnionPay cards by the end of 2017 and make breakthroughs in mobile QuickPass acceptance, local card issuance and online payment.

Unicre CEO Luis Flores said Unicre will deepen cooperation with UnionPay International to let more local merchants accept UnionPay cards in order to offer more convenient financial services to Chinese visitors.

Accepting UnionPay also helps Portuguese merchants attract more customers, and thus realize a win-win result, Flores added.

Since China and Portugal established a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2005, the two countries have enhanced trade and economic cooperation as well as people-to-people exchanges.

China is Portugal's largest trade partner in Asia. Chinese enterprises are investing more in Portugal and an increasing number of Chinese people are living in the country.

So far, UnionPay is accepted in 39 countries and regions in Europe, covering about 2 million merchants.