Dubai: Noor Investment Group's Noor Islamic Bank and Noor Takaful announced the creation of a new social media online forum shapeyourcountry.com to connect people living in the UAE across nationalities, age and econ-omic status, as well as Emiratis residing abroad.

The launch of this medium is in line with Noor's core values centred around innovation and part of a comprehensive strategy to bring to market the next generation of products and services.

The unveiling of this strategy on Thursday marked Noor Islamic Bank's second anniversary and Noor Takaful's successful completion of its first year.

In addition to providing links to Noor Islamic Bank's and Noor Takaful's portfolio of offerings and services, the forum will give people the opportunity to share their views on living in the UAE through the website.

It will also provide a vehicle for people to voice their preferences and views on how Noor Islamic Bank and Noor Takaful should develop and what services both organisations should provide.

Outreach

This new initiative is aimed at broadening the scope of outreach by Noor Investment Group to create an entirely new model for customer and public service best practices, as well as peer and investor relations.

The website will also serve as a platform for shaping and enhancing industry perceptions.

Hussain Al Qemzi, Group CEO of Noor Islamic Bank and Noor Investment Group said: "Social media represents a crucial and under-utilised channel for engaging public communities and to initiate thought provoking dialogues among industry leaders."

"To successfully adapt to international trends, we need to make use of crucial intelligence from many new sources beyond company and media supplied data.

"By stimulating social exchanges of information and opinions, we can tap into a highly relevant and contextual channel to provide valuable insights which can be channelled directly to improve services and ultimately increase client satisfaction."

The website will initially launch with a photography competition, inviting people to take pictures highlighting the UAE's unique characteristics and to upload them.

Prizes

A panel of judges will review the entries based on specific criteria and then choose the winners. The winner will receive a prize of Dh16,500; the second place winner will receive Dh7,550 and third place will receive Dh5,250.

Launched in January 2008, Noor Islamic Bank has augmented its electronic banking network to cover more than 84 ATMs across the UAE.