Government of Dubai, CBD sign agreement to foster partnership
The Government of Dubai and Commercial Bank of Dubai, CBD, signed an agreement to boost an existing partnership. Represented by Smart Dubai Government Establishment, SDG, and the Department of Finance, DOF, the Government of Dubai have maintained a strong relationship with CBD in electronic payments. The existing partnership permits the provision of payment services to individual and corporate customers using CBD's debit cards through the Government of Dubai’s e-pay gateway. The tri-party agreement was signed at DOF premises by Wesam Lootah, CEO of SDG; Jamal Hamed Al Marri, Executive Director for Central Accounts at DOF and Dr. Bernd van Linder, Chief Executive Officer of CBD.
Commenting on the agreement signing, Wesam Lootah said, "We are committed to our mission of embracing advanced technologies and placing them at the service of our community, making their lives easier and bringing us closer to our objective of making Dubai the happiest and smartest city on earth."
"Partnership and cooperation between government departments and the private sector is essential to drive Dubai’s ambitions forward, in line with directives from our wise leadership," Lootah added. "This agreement with the Commercial Bank of Dubai and the Department of Finance opens up our smart payments platform to their customers, providing them with access to new and advanced smart payment channels helping facilitate faster transactions, saving time and effort."
DOF's executive director, Al Marri, confirmed that signing the payment channel agreement with CBD is intended to improve the e-pay services. "This agreement allows more digital payment channels, which will save customers time and effort. The Government of Dubai bears financial costs in order to offer e-services to customers through the e-pay gateway, and is happy to provide them with hassle-free services," he explained.
In its efforts to realise the vision of the emirate’s wise leadership, DOF has been keen to improve the level of happiness of its residents and visitors by allowing them to pay service fees via e-pay at any time anywhere, explained Al Marri.
Dr. van Linder said, "In line with the Government of Dubai’s vision to be a smart city, we are delighted to announce this partnership with Smart Dubai and the Department of Finance. CBD is committed to developing innovative financial solutions that contribute to enhancing business excellence and providing convenience and flexibility to the Government of Dubai's customers."
"The Bank is playing a leading role in the UAE’s positioning as a smart city through the launch of a full-fledged solution designed to meet the financial requirements of organisations. The cashless solution provided to DSG and DOF utilises cutting-edge technologies to enable them to streamline operations for collecting fees and deposits and making refunds for all payments done through Dubai Smart Government’s portal. In addition, the solution provides a number of payment options, such as e-Debit or the cash online wallet to the users of the portal," he concluded.
