Decision-makers and Visa discuss advancing government services

The conference focused on innovations in payment technologies designed to help governments better serve their citizens and stimulate commerce.

It fostered a dialogue among government officials, Visa specialists, representatives from Visa's financial institution clients and industry experts focused on building efficient government payment systems.

Tarek Elhousseiny, Vice President and General Manager of Visa Egypt and North and West Africa said:

"The conference underlines Visa's commitment to helping governments use secure and reliable payment solutions designed to reduce costs, improve transparency, and stimulate economic activity. Visa has a strong track record of working with governments around the world to develop relevant and effective E-Government payment services. Visa supports the development of a wide platform of payment platforms including Government to Consumer (G2C), Government to Business (G2B) and vice versa with efficiency and speed".

The conference was attended by H.E. Saeed Sultan Al Manssori, UAE Minister of Government Sector Development, Mr. Salem Khamis Shair, Head of Dubai's E-Government as well as the Senior Advisor to the Egyptian Minister of Finance.

Participants included Senior Representatives of public and private organizations as well as prominent economic and financial analysts.

During the conference, Visa demonstrated how its government partnerships have contributed to the realization of economic development goals for both emerging and industrialized nations.

Visa has worked with governments at multiple levels to implement programs that are customized to meet local needs.

In the Philippines, for example, the GSIS eGard Plus allows over 1.2m people to receive loan and benefits payments electronically, as well as access salaries, loan proceeds and pension remittances.

In Morocco, a plastic Visa card enables 600,000 Moroccan citizens to receive pension and healthcare benefits. A microfinance program in Brazil has delivered loans to approximately 40,000 fishermen and street vendors through Visa cards, while government benefits for retirement, disability, involuntary unemployment and maternity leave are delivered via prepaid Visa Electron cards to millions of Brazilians.

The Sekulula Visa Electron debit card in South Africa helps the government electronically distribute social grants for pensions, disability benefits and child support in provincial areas,

During his keynote address, Mr. Salem Khamis Shair discussed how Dubai's E-Government initiative with Visa has contributed to establishing Dubai as a leading economic hub. The fast-growing popularity of Dubai's ePay service, which provides online services across the spectrum of corporate and community life, has facilitated revenue collection amounting to approximately Dhs160m.

"Developing robust electronic payment systems is a key catalyst that helps governments simplify and speed up a multitude of transactions," said Elhousseiny.