With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic continuing to propel contactless transactions, Uber's recent partnership with bKash on enabling automatic trip-end payments is paving the way for a bigger vision for the San Francisco-based tech giant.

Through the partnership, Uber aligned itself one step closer to the "Digital Bangladesh" narrative, Nandini Maheshwari, a director for business development at Uber APAC, told The Daily Star in an interview last week.

Uber and bKash last week announced a partnership allowing riders to pay for their trips using bKash and enabling customers to make transactions without any manual intervention once the bKash wallet is added as a payment method on the Uber app.

"We are very impressed and humbled by what bKash has built. It's truly fabulous."

But this is the first leg of the innovation that Uber has in the works for the Bangladesh market.

"We are committed to evolving our services into what the consumers in Bangladesh want."

Asked if Uber has plans to bring on board the other mobile financial service (MFS) providers of the country like Nagad and Rocket, she answered in the negative.

"Currently, our focus is to grow the adoption of the bKash platform and make it a very, very successful partnership. We have many other ideas that we want to evolve with bKash."

Asked if Uber has a plan on setting up a payment gateway with a Bangladeshi bank as issues remain over card payments for Bangladeshi Uber riders when travelling abroad, she responded in the positive.

"I have spent some time broadly on payments in Bangladesh," said Maheshwari, who was an investment banking associate for technology, media and telecom at JP Morgan before taking up the role of business development lead at Uber India in November 2015.

Bangladesh has several restrictions and seeks domestic processing of card payments as opposed to international processing.

"A majority of the 69 countries where Uber has a presence have standard processing that we apply to most markets," she said, adding that Uber was actively working towards localised processing of card payments.

Asked if Uber has a plan to introduce Uber gift cards such that customers can load their accounts on credit so that it can be used to pay for rides when travelling abroad as a workaround to the card problem for Bangladeshi riders, she was not so optimistic.

"Gift cards are a great product. We have those gift cards in several markets around the world, including India, and it went down quite well. We have Bangladesh under consideration."

Normally, gift cards are almost impossible to use outside of the home market. And that is an issue where the central bank guidelines come into play.

"I haven't checked the Bangladesh guidelines, but in most markets, there are problems like anti-money laundering laws. So even if we launch it, it would be only for use within Bangladesh, not for a Bangladeshi travelling to another country."

Maheshwari thinks as cities start moving again and with an increased focus on safety and health, the importance of safe, cashless transactions are extremely critical.

"And this partnership with bKash just comes at such an opportune time to promote more digital transactions that reduce cash dependency."

As the pandemic continues to dominate around the world, the ridesharing company is now disproportionately focusing on safety products.

"We have been working on how we can use technology to make ridesharing on mobility as safe as possible. And we have launched a series of products to make it possible."

Before a driver can go online, they will be asked to confirm whether they have gone through its new "Go Online Checklist" in which they have adopted certain safety measures and whether they are wearing masks.

And this will be verified through a request for taking a selfie and passengers would be notified about the verification.

A similar checklist will also be introduced for riders and, before every trip, riders must confirm whether they have taken precautions like wearing a face mask and have washed or sanitised their hands.

For Bangladesh, Uber has spearheaded the formation of a transport safety alliance to raise safety awareness amongst consumers and equip drivers with health and safety supplies to ensure safer rides.

"There is mandatory training for drivers before going live. There is a checklist before switching on the app. And then there are various touchpoints for the journey to make sure that they're following what we have been telling them."

"And then finally, there is always this feedback mechanism from the rider and driver. But if any of them feel unsafe with each other, then they are given the option of free cancellation."

Asked how the response has been since Uber resumed services in Bangladesh after the general shutdown, she mentioned a positive trend in the business.

But if its Moto service is launched, it would be even better.

Although the regulatory body of the country decided to allow ridesharing services to resume their businesses on 1 July, the popular motorcycle services have not been allowed to resume because social distancing was impossible in this mode of transportation.

Bangladesh was the fastest growing market in the world for the service before pandemic hit.

"Moto has been launched around the world including India. We have the confidence to provide a safe ride to the consumers."

While its ride services were on pause, the company, true to its tag line, kept moving: it rolled out two new services in the country during the pandemic.

In June, it launched Uber Connect to enable residents in Dhaka to send and receive parcels and also order items from shops within city limits.

It also introduced on-demand rental service, the first-of-its-kind launched by any ridesharing company in Bangladesh, promising to provide a personalised experience to passengers.

It allows them to book a car and its driver for several hours at a stretch and make multiple stops on a journey.

"What we are walking towards is to make sure all of our products can be available as quickly as possible."

Asked about Uber's plans for the Bangladesh market, she said: "Right now, a singular focus is to get to recovery as quickly as possible."

Uber is actively working with the government to get Moto business back as it's a huge part of its portfolio.

"After the pandemic, we will evaluate whether to launch in more cities."