The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the UAE's transition to a cashless society as a growing number of businesses and individuals have stopped using physical cash due to safety and hygiene concerns, according to a new survey.
Almost two-thirds of people in the UAE, or 64 per cent, expect the country to become fully cashless by 2030, the poll by Standard Chartered found.
The survey, which was conducted globally among 12,000 respondents aged 18 and above from August 17 to 21, also found that 73 per cent of the UAE’s respondents believe Covid-19 has made them more positive about online shopping. However, prior to the pandemic, 72 per cent of consumers preferred to shop in-person versus less than a third online.
Almost half (47 per cent) of UAE respondents said they also prefer making online payments now rather than using in-person cards or cash payments, according to the survey.
The UAE is on a fast track in adopting digital banking and cashless payments
“The UAE is on a fast track in adopting digital banking and cashless payments and the pandemic has accelerated the digital drive,” said Sonny Zulu, head of retail banking at Standard Chartered UAE.
This resonates with the findings of a Mastercard survey in April, which found that 82 per cent of UAE consumers prefer to make contactless payments due to safety and hygiene concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The survey results are supported by ATM withdrawal data where Standard Chartered offers retail banking. Cash withdrawals from ATMs are now half what they were two years ago in 10 of the 12 surveyed markets: Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kenya, China, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan, and the UAE. There was no noticeable drop in the UK and US.
Although 46 per cent of consumers in the UAE reported spending more in July, 89 per cent of people in the Emirates say the pandemic has made them more careful with their expenditure against a global average of 75 per cent.
“We see consumers in the UAE spending more on basics, such as groceries, healthcare and digital devices than they did prior to the pandemic, and they expect this increase to continue in the future,” Mr Zulu said.
The survey found that 68 per cent of people in the UAE spent less on travel than they did before the pandemic, while 42 per cent have spent less on experiences and 64 per cent have spent less on clothes.
This trend is expected to continue in the UAE, with 38 per cent of respondents saying they anticipate spending less on travel and holidays, 22 per cent on experiences and 35 per cent on clothes in the future.
The economic impact of Covid-19 has made UAE residents more careful about how they track their spending, with more than 80 per cent of those surveyed either using or expressing interest in budgeting tools or mechanisms that block card spend over specified limits.
The pandemic has also made UAE consumers, especially younger generations, keen to buy locally made and sustainably sourced products. About 61 per cent of UAE consumers said they are more likely to shop locally, 59 per cent want to shop more sustainably and 55 per cent prefer to shop with small businesses.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
What are the main cyber security threats?
Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
PAKISTAN SQUAD
Abid Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali (test captain), Babar Azam (T20 captain), Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imran Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, Kashif Bhatti, Shadab Khan and Yasir Shah.
Challenge Cup result:
1. UAE 3 faults
2. Ireland 9 faults
3. Brazil 11 faults
4. Spain 15 faults
5. Great Britain 17 faults
6. New Zealand 20 faults
7. Italy 26 faults
Gender pay parity on track in the UAE
The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.
"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."
Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.
"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.
As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general.
U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES
UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
- Saturday 15 January: UAE beat Canada by 49 runs
- Thursday 20 January: v England
- Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh
UAE squad:
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles
Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly,
Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya
Shetty, Kai Smith
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
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TALE OF THE TAPE
Manny Pacquiao
Record: 59-6-2 (38 KOs)
Age: 38
Weight: 146lbs
Height: 166cm
Reach: 170cm
Jeff Horn
Record: 16-0-1 (11 KOs)
Age: 29
Weight: 146.2lbs
Height: 175cm
Reach: 173cm
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Company%20Profile
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