Dr. Mohamed Khalfan bin Khirbash, UAE's Minister of State for Finance and Industry
Dr . Mohamed Khalfan bin Khirbash, UAE's Minister of State for Finance and Industry, seen with Mrs. Anne Cobb, President, Visa International CEMEA and Mr. Kamran Siddiqi, General Manager Middle East, Visa International, at the "Future of Payments - Visa Avenue 2010" conference in Dubai.
Dr. Khirbash and Mrs Cobb gave keynote addresses at the conference, which brought industry experts from around the globe to share best practice and to give insights into the world's leading card-based programmes. The Visa Avenue 2010 exhibition showcased pioneering technologies of today and a glimpse of what a shopping experience could look like in the year 2010 - including contactless payments, wireless point of sale terminals, virtual keyboards and smart posters and billboards.
Mrs. Cobb told delegates to expect the rapid development of technology to continue and for this to open up a whole set of new opportunities. 'Devices will continue to converge, leading to the formation of new and interesting partnerships. The end result will be more payment choices for the consumer. Banks, Governments and organisations will be able to give the consumer the payment choices they demand by building flexible, future-proof systems.'
'Technology gives us the opportunity to put a payment application on all types of devices and to add a range of applications to cards,' said Mrs. Anne Cobb, Visa's President for CEMEA (Central and Eastern Europe Middle East and Africa). 'It is possible to add and remove applications to these cards and devices, allowing the consumer to create their unique payment environment.'
Projects using the latest technology have already been implemented in Moscow with its Social Card, in China's Mass Transit Contactless applications, National Health Insurance Card programme in Taiwan and the US Defence Ministry's Access Card, all of which exemplify chip technology based on open standards being applied in the public sector.
'Convergence is changing the way we do business,' she added, citing that banks and payment systems are increasingly partnering with technology operators, the retail community and governments for a host of new consumer based public services.
'One of the most exciting areas of development is e-government where governments are looking to simplify processes for their citizens and residents and to make their systems more efficient. This is helping better economic management,'
added Mrs. Cobb while lauding the role of governments in emerging economies for making e-initiatives a priority towards better economic performance.
Dr. Mohamed Khalfan bin Khirbash said: 'We are encouraged by the enormous progress that the e-payment industry is making in the UAE. We look at its future with great confidence. An advanced, fully integrated national e-Payment platform will certainly have a positive impact on our e-Government efforts in terms of fostering efficiency, improving transparency, increasing revenues, and making the best use of our human resources. Overall, it will boost our drive towards a high performance government and a more competitive economy.'
Some of the futuristic technologies that will soon become popular methods of day to day payments include:
• Mobile payments - enabled with the help of smart phones that use a technology called Near Field Communication (NFC). Payments can be made from anywhere and for any amount.
• Contactless payments - ideally suited for small ticket items, making the payment process and thereby providing increased efficiency whether with the retail arena or for mass transit application such as for the railways.
• Smart posters and billboards - use inexpensive RFIDs (Radio Frequency Identification Devices) embedded in posters and billboards and when combined with smart phones, provide an integrated environment for making payments and communicating with consumers.
• Wireless Point of Sale Terminals - ideally meant for merchants who do not have landline connection or those vendors who are always on the move such as door to door salesmen, plumbers, electricians or beach vendors.
• Virtual keyboards - for mobile phones, PDAs and other gadgets that allow touch typing at speed. They are innovative, compact, stylish and easy to use.
• Light card - Adding long-lasting inexpensive power to an ISO standard card. Powered cards can be used for light, sound, security, display and other applications.
Mrs. Cobb concluded: 'Tomorrow's technology is here today and this shows that we are now moving to a higher plain in the electronic payment environment. At every stage, Visa can support and enhance the speed, quality and efficiency of day to day payments.'
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