Saturday, January 12, 2008 E-payments seen to make gov’t. transactions efficient, transparent
PHILIPPINES - Visa International released last December a Government ePayments Adoption Ranking (Gear) that measures the extent to which governments in 43 markets provide key payment services on electronic platforms.
The markets were chosen to represent all regions, many cultures and political systems, and broad levels of economic development as they account for approximately 83 percent of the total human population and approximately 91 percent of global economic output.
The adoption rankings were based on 31 indicators grouped into six payment categories, including consumer-to-government, government-to-consumer, business-to-government, government-to-business, infrastructure, and educational, economic and political context.
The Gear study, underwritten by Visa and conducted independently by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a leading research and analysis firm, ranks Canada as the world’s leading nation for government electronic payments (with a score of 92.4 out of 100), because of the government’s comprehensive electronic administration procedures.
Insights
“The Gear study provides Visa and our client financial institutions with valuable insights into the government payments sector, helping us generate new ideas to meet governments’ needs through safe and reliable electronic payments alternatives,” said Bob Joubert, Visa International country manager for the Philippines. “Visa is committed to working with governments around the world to develop innovative programs that help governments improve operational efficiencies to better serve their citizens and stimulate commerce.”
The Gear rankings show that Canada (92.4) is followed in order by the United Kingdom (92.1), Germany and the United States tied at (90.1), Sweden (89.6), Australia (88.0), South Korea (86.8), France (86.6), Hong Kong (86.3), and Singapore in (85.6).
“One of the interesting findings in the study is that developing markets, notably Turkey, China and Brazil, have overcome the limitation of their infrastructure and introduced effective electronic payment systems,” said Dr. Laura James, editor and economic analyst of the Economist Intelligence Unit.
“The study also shows that while a large majority of governments have made great progress in their ability to accept payments electronically, an opportunity still exists for more governments to develop systems for distributing payments to citizens and businesses,” she added.
The move to enable electronic payment systems can improve the efficiency and transparency of government administration, foster business growth and allow for better fiscal management. One example is that by enabling more efficient loan distributions, more money can be brought into the economy.
Visa continues to seek new ways to bring the security, reliability and efficiency of electronic payments to the public sector for both the acceptance of electronic payments and the use of electronic payment alternatives for procurement, collections and the distribution of funds. (PR)
