Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The third working meeting of the heads of the National payment systems and the National (Central) banks of the CIS countries was held in Samarkand.

The meeting was attended by representatives of national payment systems and national banks of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Abkhazia, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan.

At the opening of the meeting, the Director General of the National Payment Card System (NPCS - operator of the Mir payment system) Vladimir Komlev and the Director General of the United Republic-wide Processing Center (EOPC - the operator of the UzCard interbank payment system) Ahror Makhmudov paid attention to development of the infrastructure of the payment systems of the two countries, quality of services and proposed innovative solutions to the public.

EOPC Director General Ahror Makhmudov informed about the importance of cooperation with NSPK, a strategically relevant memorandum between the two payment systems:

“According to statistical data of the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for 2018, more than 5 million tourists visited Uzbekistan from the CIS countries. Accordingly, cooperation with NPCS (MIR) is necessary not only for Uzbekistan and Russia, but also is promising for the rest of the CIS countries. It is planned that the integration process will be carried out in stages. By the autumn of this year, our company plans to connect the entire terminal park of Aloqabank. Today, this bank has 6,380 POS-terminals and a number of ATM devices for Uzcard cardholders. At the same time, in the same period, it is planned to implement a project for the issue of Uzcard-Mir co-branded cards. Offering users of the two systems enhanced co-branded cards, a number of processes are being simplified for conversion into foreign currency, for transferring funds, and for carrying out transactions in the CIS countries. In the future, we plan to fully switch to the applet of the Mir payment system and abandon our own,” Ahror Makhmudov said.

Vladimir Komlev, General Director of the NPCS, stated his opinion on cooperation with the CIS countries:

“We will create an opportunity for people everywhere to feel comfortable, like at home, and not to feel the boundaries when they travel from one CIS state to another. This is an important understanding that we are part of a seamless payment space along with the mutual penetration of our cultures.”

Following the meeting, the heads of the national payment systems of the CIS countries proposed to create an expert council for the development of national payment instruments. The purpose of this council is to ensure the unhindered servicing of national payment instruments, the development of national payment cards, the development of joint products and solutions, and the interaction with local regulators.