Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has expanded its partnership with Mastercard to drive economic growth in the Emirate with the leveraging of its data and intelligence services.
The partnership outlines the acceleration of digital payments, the enabling of a digital economy in Dubai and support for small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the market.
The Chamber will present Mastercard’s insight into the evolving spending patterns of consumers, including their use of online channels at a series of workshops that it’s due to host.
“A key pillar of our new 2022 – 2024 strategy is growing Dubai’s digital economy and improving the business environment,” said Hamad Buamim, president and CEO of Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“By utilising Mastercard’s global-best technologies, we will ensure these goals are achieved through deliberate and precise insights that ultimately serve to benefit the government, businesses and residents.”
Last year, Dubai Chamber transitioned to a new model in a paradigm shift for business in Dubai, in order to strengthen the Emirate’s position as a digitally-driven economy and global business hub.
The newly-adopted Dubai Chambers strategy is based on four main pillars: enhancing and developing the business environment, attracting international companies to Dubai, facilitating the global expansion of local companies, and advancing the emirate’s digital economy.
“As Dubai continues to embrace the power of technology in fostering business growth and sustainability, Mastercard is supporting our government partners in this dynamic journey,” said Khalid Elgibali, division president MENA, Mastercard.
“With our ability to transform big data into meaningful insights, we are geared to help accelerate the transition of the city towards a smart economy. This partnership further supports our ongoing commitment to empower SMEs so they can thrive in a digital world.”
Economic growth in the UAE is on an accelerating path in 2022. Alongside the strength in the economy comes the rise of inflation following years of deflation. The pent-up demand of domestic consumers in the UAE is another pillar of growth, and the strong recovery in travel which began in the second half of 2021 is expected to continue this year.
Consistent with the increase in travel, spending on hotels, taxis and car rentals, particularly in Dubai and Sharjah, has also increased. Online penetration in products such as electronics has remained high while the most notable upward e-commerce share shift has been for restaurants.
