Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani issued a number of directives today, Saturday, within the framework of developing electronic payment systems and services in Iraq. The directives, according to a government source, included the following: - Directing the Ministry of Planning, in cooperation with the Central Bank of Iraq and the World Bank, to establish a national budget allocated to support and develop digital payment systems across the country. - Directing all ministries, including the Central Bank of Iraq, to prepare an electronic cash flow statement periodically to ensure financial transparency, determine liquidity and manage risks, which contributes to improving financial planning. - Directing ministries and government institutions to establish strategic partnerships with banking and non-banking financial institutions as well as technological institutions and adopt effective action steps for cooperation and exchange of proposals and experiences. - Obligating financial and banking institutions to develop their technical and digital systems in accordance with the latest international standards, including enhancing anti-money laundering and anti-fraud systems, to ensure operational efficiency, improve the quality of banking services, and achieve full compliance with regulatory controls. - Obligating financial and banking institutions to develop cyber protection systems and adopt the cyber resilience document, with strict adherence to the controls issued by the Central Bank regarding electronic governance, to ensure comprehensive protection of banking systems against cyber threats and ensure business continuity in times of crises. - Directing ministries and government institutions to develop capable government work teams to follow up on electronic payment operations on a daily basis through training and qualification, and through specialized system portals provided by payment services companies. - Directing the Ministry of Communications to cooperate with ministries and government institutions to expe dite the adoption of the Electronic Signature and Electronic Transactions Law No. 78 of 2012 to be compatible with the requirements of electronic payment and collection settlements in the Ministry of Finance in cooperation with the Central Bank of Iraq - Instructing the Ministry of Finance to submit a study on the mechanisms for establishing intermediate accounts, which are adopted by government institutions as a mechanism for dealing with restricted government accounts to solve the problem of disconnections for citizens in the event of failure of financial operations. - The Central Bank shall issue directives to private and government banks to deal transparently and not discriminate between electronic payment companies - The Central Bank of Iraq shall prepare what is necessary to cancel the prepaid ceilings for cards used locally to ensure wider and more flexible use - Directing ministries and government institutions to establish specialized units within government departments to facilitate financial mat ching and settlements and resolve disputes arising from electronic payment, in coordination with banks - Directing the Integrity Commission to intensify oversight of collection points in government departments to ensure transparency and integrity - Directing the Financial Supervision Bureau to develop and legislate administrative and financial updates that are compatible with electronic payment systems and follow up on them continuously - Emphasizing government institutions and electronic payment service provider companies to implement the paragraphs contained in the electronic financial collection and collection agreements according to the responsibilities of each party contained in those agreements - Directing government banks to complete the activation of the comprehensive banking system to improve financial and administrative performance - Obligating all ministries and government institutions to adopt advanced electronic administrative and accounting systems to enhance efficiency and transparency. Source: National Iraqi News Agency