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Bank of Palestine provided it silver sponsorship for the activities of the 14th information technology week “ExpoTech 2017”, which was organized by the Palestinian Information Technology Association (PITA) in Ramallah and Gaza on the 11th and 12th of December 2017. Bank of Palestine had a huge and unique participation, which included activities that were organized on the sidelines of ExpoTech in Ramallah and Gaza.
The activities of ExpoTech are considered an important opportunity for evaluating the level to which Palestine has reached in the field of technology in order to be able to plan for what could be achieved in future years. The aim of this is to promote Palestine towards globally advanced levels and come up with a comprehensive overview.
Bank of Palestine worked diligently to sponsor the various activities of this annual event from the very beginning. This stems from its interest in keeping up with global advancements in technology and transforming them to Palestine to enable technology to become among the distinguished elements in serving the Palestinian people in the social and economic fields. The bank believes that technology today allowed us to use natural resources in the best possible manner, left positive impact on the levels of production, speed, decreasing costs, increasing economic growth rates, improving living standards, transforming the world into a small village and creating job opportunities, not to mention that technology managed to create breakthroughs in medicine, architecture and other sciences and represent an important part of the global economy. It is also important to mention that the biggest companies in the world today are those that work in the field of information technology.
The bank called upon the Palestinian economy to be based on knowledge, innovation, creativity and state-of-the-art technology that creates products and services with worldwide competitions. According to the bank, technology will allow Palestine to double production rates, improve quality, impact economic growth, and create job opportunities and economic prospects.
In terms of banking services that have been developed lately in Palestine, Bank of Palestine’s Deputy Director Rushdi Ghalayini pointed out that the bank was able to create a footprint on the map of advanced electronic banking services in the region, whereby it provided a bundle of electronic services that largely contributed to facilitating transactions for clients as well as saving time and effort. These services provided by the bank include internet banking, the Banki smartphone application, the information center that aims to provide several services that clients require over the phone, and a network of electronic points of sales in the West Bank and Gaza.
Al Ghalyini added that Bank of Palestine is considered the first and only center that issues and accepts international credit and debit cards since 1999. In order to organize and manage electronic banking services pertaining to cards, in 2011, the bank established PalPay company to develop an electronic banking system in Palestine. Together with PalPay, the bank managed to distribute more than 6,000 points of sale in various stores, restaurants, hotels, pharmacies and other places, to enable bank clients and citizens who are clients at other banks, to pay their bills and shop using these cards. PalPay also managed to establish contracts with more than 75 companies and organizations from both the private and public sectors to pay their service bills.
To culminate the services provided, PalPay managed to gain first place in the City Bank competition that was held in Abu Dhabi in May 2017. This is one of the global awards for distinction in the field of electronic solutions.
Al Ghalayini pointed out that Bank of Palestine was among the first to establish the Ibtikar Fund in partnership with several Palestinian private sector companies and businessmen with an aim to invest in innovative ideas and youth entrepreneurial projects to provide Palestinian youth a window to the future so that they become the leaders of economic activities and be able to build production bases in all fields.