BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 24
By Sadraddin Agdzhaev - Trend:
MasterCard and Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) have signed an agreement on a five-year partnership in the field of digital transformation, the head of the MasterCard representative office in Azerbaijan, Erdem Cakar, told Trend.
The strategic focus of the partnership is on the state policy in the field of digitalization and economic growth, he said.
"Within the framework of bilateral cooperation in 2017, we prepared a three-year strategic digital roadmap for Azerbaijan, including more than 150 initiatives," Cakar said.
Within the current agreement, the parties are implementing projects in the field of financial access, development of financial markets, and improvement of the regulatory environment of the payment ecosystem, he said.
Over the next five years, payments will be simplified by expanding access to financial services and using "Student" smart cards to pay for education at universities, he said.
The concept of "Cashless Cities" will be introduced and the costs of issuing plastic cards will be reduced by transferring payment technology to phones, payments will be expanded in areas where cash currently prevails (parking, taxi), as well as a number of other projects and initiatives will be implemented, Cakar said.
MasterCard supports the "Smart City" concept in Azerbaijan and expects the project to be implemented throughout the country, he said.
"We will continue to conduct business negotiations with Azerbaijani companies in order to increase the non-cash payments throughout the country," he added.
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