
2021-03-15
About the requirements of the Corona pandemic recovery phase:
Enhancing the flexibility of Arab financial inclusion in response to the requirements of the Corona pandemic recovery phase
Tuesday 16 March 2021
15:00 to 17:00 Abu Dhabi time
Those gathered to discuss:
Assessing the implications of climate change and identifying potential opportunities for responsible financial services in the Arab region
Enhancing the resilience of the microfinance market in light of the pandemic implications
Developing risk-sharing tools to support MSMEs
Discussing the development of loan guarantee mechanisms for projects
Today, Tuesday, March 16, 2021, the Arab Monetary Fund is organizing the eighth virtual “remote” meeting to discuss the requirements for recovering from the Corona pandemic: Enhancing the flexibility of Arab financial inclusion in response to the requirements of the Corona pandemic recovery phase. The meeting will be attended by directors of financial inclusion departments, payment systems, and digital financial infrastructure at central banks and Arab monetary institutions, in addition to the Arab Monetary Fund, which assumes the technical secretariat of the committees and working groups emanating from the Board of Governors of Central Banks and Arab Monetary Institutions. The meeting will be attended, in addition to the General Secretariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, representatives of the following regional and international institutions:CGAP ), the United Nations Capital Development Fund, the Euroclear Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and a number of regional and global universities. Also participating in the meeting are institutions and funds for lending small and medium enterprises in Arab countries, and the professional networks of these funds and microfinance institutions.
The meeting will discuss the requirements for facing the repercussions of climate change on the financial sector, and the importance of developing proactive strategies and plans in this regard. The challenges posed by the implications of climate change on the financial and banking sector, the corresponding potential opportunities for Arab financial and banking institutions, and the role that supervisory authorities and banking financial institutions can play to take advantage of these opportunities will be reviewed. The meeting also addresses the lessons learned from the pandemic regarding the role of microcredit guarantee programs to mitigate the repercussions of the crisis, as the discussion sheds light on the hoped-for role of these programs in the current stage and in the medium term to help economies recover in the post-pandemic phase. This includes discussing the plans and strategies of credit guarantee institutions and global experiences in this regard.
On this occasion, His Excellency the Director General, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Monetary Fund, Dr. Abdulrahman bin Abdullah Al-Hamidi expressed his hope that the meeting would contribute to strengthening dialogue and exchanging experiences on developing policies and tools related to improving financial inclusion in Arab countries, in order to limit the effects of the Corona pandemic on services. Finance, and discuss opportunities and challenges to enhance access to financial and banking services for all segments of society, especially micro, small and medium enterprises. His Excellency also praised the importance of the topics covered by the meeting, especially those related to the implications of climate change, and loan guarantees for micro, small and medium enterprises.