In Geneva to attend the 24th Universal Postal Congress, the postal leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen signed an agreement that will see them start exchanging money transfers electronically.
As with other regional projects, the money transfer service relies on the UPU's IFS application and international financial network.
Launched by the Arab League and implemented by a regional steering committee chaired by Emirates Post, the project, also supported by the French Post, will allow the postal operators involved to exchange money orders on a multilateral basis from now on.
The new service furthers the UPU's efforts to improve access to secure and reliable money transfer services through formal channels for rural populations, and especially for migrant workers.
Explains Emirate Post's Nasser FATHI SADIQ QADDOUMI, Chairman of the steering committee: The multilateral agreement is giving the Arab region – with some countries in Asia and others in Africa – a push to provide better services to migrant workers. For example, more than 80% of the United Arab Emirates population of 5.8 million people consists of foreigners, and the situation in other Gulf countries is not much different, says QADDOUMI.
Other Arab countries said they would join the regional network by the end of this year.
A similar regional project is expected to start next week with countries from North Eastern Africa.