I refer to two letters to the editor published under the headline Many problems have arisen with Mawaqif parking (February 17). So I'm going to have friends over for dinner from out of town and then they'll spend the weekend with us. Where exactly are they supposed to park given that the blue/black spots are only for residents past 9pm? There surely aren't enough blue/white spots available at that point.
Also in my area, we have a 24-hour hypermarket and a 24-hour hospital. Where do patrons park past 9pm if they want to use these services?
One last thing: I begin my work at 7am but I'll get a fine if I park in "residence" only parking before 8am.
Mawaqif has put us in a position of absolutely no social life with family or friends and issues with work as well. Has Mawaqif thought about these real life scenarios?
F D'Souza, Abu Dhabi
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Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
