Chandula leads Asia Micro Finance Forum for 4th successive time in Shanghai

Tuesday, 12 August 2014 00:33 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Asia Micro Finance Forum, the most sought-after event of the micro finance industry in Asia, very successfully concluded in Shanghai on 7 August with over 500 delegates from over 40 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and USA. Chandula Abeywickrema is the Chairman of the Banking With The Poor Network (BWTP), the largest Asia-based microfinance network, which is the Convenor of the forum for the fourth successive time with Citi Foundation as the lead partner, Foundation Development Cooperation (FDC) as the Organiser of the event and China Association of Microfinance as the local host. This is the fourth time the event was held under the leadership of Chandula; the very first was in Beijing, China in 2006, second was in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2008 and third in Colombo Sri Lanka in 2010. AMF 2014 is themed ‘Financial Inclusion in Asia: Creating dynamic financial ecosystem for the poor’. The forum which is a three day event, discussed the financial frame works in the countries in Asia, policies, and regulations; financial capability; demand driven products; peer to peer microfinance; behavioural economics; digital finance, micro finance as a catalyst for SME growth and achieving impact of the target groups with more pragmatic solutions. Chandula also had the rare privilege of being among two of the global greats in the global microfinance industry, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, the Founder and Chairman of Brac Bank, and Bob Annibale, the Global Director of Citi Bank for Microfinance and Community Development, for the AMF 2014 opening keynote presentations. All the three keynote speakers articulated the emerging changers and the challengers the stake holders of the industry is facing and timely advocacy of AMF 2014 to move away from narrow micro finance focus to a broader financial inclusion strategy and importance of the creation of a more dynamic ecosystem to empower and enrich over two billion people in Asia. Key segments like youth and migrant workers were identified as critical segments to bring under greater inclusive strategy. The next Asia Micro Finance Forum will be held in 2016 in another key Asian country.