Southeast Asia
Reliance on Cash and Checks Weighing Down Public Agencies Striving for Efficiency: Visa Poll
SINGAPORE, 21 December 2011
Smart e-payment solutions from Visa can help government agencies manage costs and streamline operations
|
When it comes to managing public funds, more than half of the Asia Pacific government agencies polled in a Visa survey say they are most challenged to get the job done by budget cuts, pressure to streamline operations, and late payments. The poll also revealed that these agencies are not able to optimize efficiencies because they rely heavily on manual processes and cash and checks when making payments to vendors and citizens. “The reliance on cash and checks causes many of the administrative inefficiencies that agencies face today and are a hindrance to the important social and economic work they need to do. Moving to an electronic payments and reporting system from a paper-based one, would resolve many of the issues associated with the complexity of managing public funds and help agencies save money, and improve productivity and transparency,” said Olivia Leong, Regional Director, Enterprise and Government Commercial Solutions, Asia Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa, Visa. “From managing travel expenses to making social security payouts to citizens, the Visa Commercial Solutions suite of products, including our Visa Corporate and Visa Purchasing cards as well as our intelligent management reporting systems, can help government agencies enhance data collection and monitoring, drive cost savings and streamline operations.” One hundred top finance and procurement officials from central government, city administration and hospital management agencies across Asia Pacific were surveyed by Visa at the FutureGov Asia Pacific Summit 2011[1]. These public sector leaders are responsible for the disbursement of subsidies and loans, tax refunds, disaster relief to citizens, as well as payments for wages, pensions and suppliers. The Visa poll revealed that the top two challenges faced by public funds managers were funding cuts (58 percent) and the need to drive efficiency improvements (57 percent). Other issues this group needed to address were tackling late payments (41 percent), improving accountability for the management of public funds (39 percent) and the shadow economy (25 percent). More than half of those polled (58 percent) also said they still rely on cash and checks to pay beneficiaries and businesses. Visa has helped public sector organizations around the world, including those from Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Korea, adopt electronic payment technologies. To read about real-life examples of how Visa helps governments and citizens, click here. For more information on the payment solutions and tools available to governments, go to: www.visa-asia.com/commercial
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
About Visa Commercial Solutions for Governments
Visa is recognized as a global leader in Government-to-Business (G2B) payment solutions. Visa’s total transaction management solutions include government payment programs, information management and consulting services. The best-in-class solutions enable government organizations to manage their payment programs, streamline processes and improve their bottom line. With the significant enhancements to our suite of solutions, you will be able to enjoy improved governance and process efficiencies for travel and indirect procurement related expenses.
For more information, please visit www.visa-asia.com/commercial.
About Visa
Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world’s most advanced processing networks—VisaNet—that is capable of handling more than 20,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products.
For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.
* For copyright information on the content hosted on this page, visit http://www.visa-asia.com/ap/sea/general/
copyright/index.shtml
