Credit and saving: powerful tools for private sector development
Credit and saving: powerful tools for private sector development
Improving access to credit and savings is a powerful tool for private sector development and also in terms of building household resilience against economic shocks and crises.
“Access to financial services is increasingly important for poverty reduction and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG),” said the Australian Ambassador John Williams, speaking on the need for greater access to financial services.
“Australia is pleased to support the implementation of the Making Access to Finance Possible (MAP) in the Laos,” Mr Williams said on Thursday at a workshop on the official launch of the MAP process and FinScope Survey in Laos on MAP.
“Access to inclusive finance is one of the Laos' pressing economic concerns.”
“We see a number of constraints that limit access to financial services by rural households – weak financial service providers, the small range of products, very limited reach, small capital base, and lack of information and adaption to the needs of poor households and micro and small enterprises.”
“That is why Australia is pleased to support the implementation of MAP in Laos, as it has done in other Asean countries such as Myanmar.”
In Laos, MAP has been implemented since 2013, and currently starting its FinScope Survey in collaboration with the Lao Statistics Bureau (LSB) as well as the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
The FinScope field survey will be executed by LSB who will work with the Lao government and national experts. The MAP process is guided by the National Steering Committee comprising of major stakeholders in the financial sector.
The BOL's Financial Institution Supervision Department Director General, Dr Akhom Praseuth said that the Making Access to Finance more Inclusive for Poor People (MAFIPP) project is being implemented by the Bank of the Lao PDR (BOL), which aims to improve access by poor rural households to a variety of financial services.
The project is funded by the United Nations Development Programme, UNCDF, and the Australian government.
Dr Akhom, who he is also on the National Steering Committee of MAFIPP, said MAP is a multi-country initiative to support financial inclusion through a process of evidence-based country diagnostics and dialogue that seeks to identify key drivers of financial inclusion in order to determine a national financial inclusion roadmap.
It is a joint initiative by the UNCDF, and its South African based organisation partners, FinMark Trust and the Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion.
Also attending the workshop were representatives from the Government Office, concerned ministries, microfinance institutions, state owned and private commercial banks, donor partners and other private sector partners.
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