Expertise and initiatives to improve financial access for low-income
people in the Southeast Asian region were discussed at an ASEAN workshop
held in Myanmar’s capital city of Nay Pyi Taw on October 29 – 30.
Addressing the event, Myanmar’s Finance Minister U Win Shein said as
an outcome of the 18 th ASEAN Finance Ministers Meeting 2014, the
function aims at finding effective measures to extend financial services
to people with no access to banking services.
The minister
emphasised the importance of financial access to poverty alleviation,
noting that 70 percent of the poor in the world living in rural areas
are excluded from financial systems. In addition, 59 percent of the
world’s 2.5 billion adults without access to formal financial system are
residents in East and Southeast Asia.
The conference’s
participants, including experts, policy-makers and officials from ASEAN
state members and the United Nation, focused their discussions on the
issues of allocating start-up capital for the poor and boosting women’s
role in the field of finance.-VNA