By: Ashraf Sadek CAIRO, April 4, 2018 - President Abdel Fattah El Sisi expressed appreciation for the achievements made in the financial sector in Egypt through partnership with Visa Inc. The president made special reference in this regard to the US company's efforts in improving the financial services, making Visa Inc a key partner to Egypt in development. President Sisi's statements came during his meeting yesterday with visiting Visa Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Alfred F Kelly Jr. Attending the meeting were the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Engineer Yasser el-Qadi, and senior Visa company officials, Presidency Spokesman Ambassador Bassam Radi said. During the meeting, President Sisi highlighted that Egypt is looking forward to developing ongoing partnership with Visa in various fields related to the company's expertise and activities, including improving the financial services in compliance with the latest technologies that are being applied worldwide. The President said that the improved financial services would help promote investments in Egypt, provide citizens with advanced financial transaction services, and achieving economic inclusion, Ambassador Radi. This economic inclusion, the President said, will help integrate various social classes into modern financial services and benefiting from them. President Sisi praised the ongoing co-operation with Visa Inc, stressing Egypt's keenness on benefiting from the company's potentials and capabilities in this field while taking into consideration the company's successful work experience in the Egyptian market. President Sisi also said that Egypt was looking forward to increasing the company's investments in many areas such as modernizing the country's systems of electronic financial transactions, achieving the digital economy, and assisting the government's efforts towards realizing the inclusive economy. For his part, Visa CEO Kelly asserted his company's willingness to enhance co-operation with the Cairo government, noting that it has been through such co-operation that the company's activities have achieved a great success in Egypt. Elaborating, he said that the figures and paces of work as achieved in Egypt have been unprecedented in Visas' history. Mr. Kelly said that the company was keen on increasing its co-operation with the Cairo government in various domains such as the digital payment system, which he described as one of the pillars of realizing economic development. He also praised the overall investment climate in Egypt, saying that such climate reflected the government's keenness on achieving development and presenting high-quality services to the citizens. Also discussed during the meeting between President Sisi and Mr. Kelly was the company's participation in the on-going efforts towards developing the telecommunications infra-structures, improving the financial transactions through the use of advanced technologies, building a unified data base for the country, amd issuing an ATM card for each citizen, Ambassador Radi said.
