TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

DOHA Bank and China UnionPay, the biggest and most advanced bankcard association in the Chinese bankcard industry, on Monday announced a strategic partnership to offer greater facilities to China UnionPay cardholders on Doha Bank ATMs and PoS terminals by the end of this year.

With this agreement, China UnionPay cardholders will have the facility of cash transactions and balance inquiries on Doha Bank’s network of ATMs.

The collaboration will also allow China UnionPay cardholders to enjoy payments through Doha Bank to purchase goods and services offered by Doha Bank’s selection of outlets within the participant network.

Talking about the importance of the agreement, Doha Bank Group CEO R Seetharaman said, “Trade passageways between China and the GCC region transport enormous economic growth potential for businesses, offering the utmost prospects in the commodity and energy sectors. China is poised to become the world’s largest trading nation by 2016 and will account for 12.3 percent of world trade by 2026.

“We believe that economic growth comes from increasing productivity, most increases in productivity result from education, research, and innovation— those activities that mark highimagination- enabling countries such as China. We must ensure that there is no obstacle between us and China. This is why we have come to a shared space with China UnionPay.” Stressing the importance of the tie-up, the Doha Bank CEO said, “Our dynamism and leadership in partnership marketing is targeted to build customer trust and to empower people with choice in a significantly converged world, and today we outspread our revelation towards China mainly and look forward to serve the significant yearly growth of Chinese people who reside and visit Qatar to support the billions of dollars massive projects in Qatar in years to come.” Established in March 2002, China UnionPay is a bankcard association established under the approval of the State Council and the People’s Bank of China.

At present, the Shanghai-headquartered UnionPay has over 400 domestic and overseas associate members worldwide.

China UnionPay has become the central and pivotal part of China’s bankcard industry, and plays an essential role in the industry development. As the bankcard association in China, UnionPay operates an interbank transaction settlement system through which the connection and switch between banking systems and the inter-bank, cross-region and cross-border usages of bankcards issued by associate banks could be realised