Region’s largest e-commerce tech, payments exhibition kicks off

Business Bureau, Gulf Today

Seamless Middle East 2019, region’s largest payments and commerce technology conference and exhibition kicked off on Wednesday at Dubai World Trade Centre. The two-day show has attracted around 350 exhibitors who are big names in the global industry offering digital payment solutions, showcasing cutting edge products and solutions ‘from mobile payments, data analytics, inventory management and POS, self-service and ATM’s to digital marketing and omni-channel retailing’.

The event, held under the patronage of Lt. General Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, features over 75 free to attend sessions that structured around three themes - ecommerce, eetail, and payments and cards. Dubai CommerCity, the region’s dedicated e-commerce free zone, is highlighting the latest industry trends at the show.

Amna Lootah, Assistant Director General - Finance, Commercial and Customer relations Division Foster of Dafza Innovation and Future Unit commented, “The e-commerce market is set to quadruple in volume over the next five years and the Middle East market has been identified by studies as being one of the region’s most ready for disruption and digital transformation. Dubai CommerCity’s continued participation at seamless 2019 is a testament of our commitment to shaping the future in Dubai, and adding value to our customers in the region.

“We see tremendous opportunities for further growth in the e-commerce sector, which is being led by new technology and innovation. Improvements to infrastructure, services and logistics in the region are also having a positive impact and these are all areas that we are investing in as Dubai CommerCity,” she added.

The first e-commerce free zone in the Mena region, Dubai CommerCity is a strategic project, aimed at elevating Dubai’s position as a leading hub for e-commerce, laying the foundation of economic diversification and smart transformation.

Commenting on the project, Lootah added, “With the e-commerce sector in the UAE expected to reach the $26 billion by 2022, Dubai CommerCity will be a dedicated free zone for major international and regional manufacturers, as well as companies operating within the e-commerce sector, to set up their businesses in the GCC, Mena and East Asia regions. It will offer an encouraging and stimulating environment for future growth and investment opportunities.”

According to a recent report commissioned by Dafza and Dubai CommerCity, the MENASA region’s e-commerce sector is growing at 24.6 per cent compound annual rate through to 2020.

Mint Middle East (MME), together with its subsidiaries (Mint Group), is a globally certified payments processing and acquiring company with its headquarter in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Mint Group is approved by the UAE Central Bank, Mastercard, and UnionPay as a third-party payment processor.

The MME is set to make carrying money while travelling a hassle-free experience and strengthen the ability of financial institutions to keep an accurate record of their customers.

In this regard, Mint Middle East has unveiled two new products to facilitate cashless and pre-fixed forex rate transactions for travelers and a reliable customer verification solution for financial institutions.

Abdulrazzaq Al Abdullah, Chairman and CEO of Mint Middle East and a philanthropist, speaking on the sideline of the Seamless Middle East 2019, said: “We are excited to present the multi-currency travel card and Assisted Know Your Customer (KYC) to our stakeholders in the UAE. The payments industry is constantly evolving and is in need of robust digital solutions that don’t only facilitate easier digital payments, but also keeps them secure.”

He continued: “The multi-currency prepaid travel card and mobile application will ensure that our travelling customers are never faced with a situation where they’ve run out of money or when an exchange house is unavailable. Furthermore, the Assisted KYC solution is a comprehensive authentication service for financial institutions so they onboard and retain more customers with an accurate record of their identity. This is will help them align with the safety and authentication mandates from UAE’s Central Bank.”

UAE has seen sharp growth in outbound travel during the recent years. According to research around 7.6 million outbound travels were there during the last year. Currently around 55 per cent of the travel expenses are cash based which accounts to a total of $10.4 billion out of the total.

Mint aims to capture a large market share with the introduction of Multi currency prepaid card solutions for the exchange houses that will enable them to serve their travelling customers with a multi-currency prepaid card and mobile application. The application will allow up to 25 currencies for the linked multiple accounts with 6 active currencies. Multi-currency card can be white labelled or co-branded according to the needs of the exchange houses.