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ADB Workshop On Microfinance Strategy

The Asian Development Bank will hold a workshop to discuss its Draft Microfinance Development Strategy at the Bank's headquarters in Manila from 1 to 3 September 1999.

The strategy defines the ADB's role in developing institutional microfinance as an effective way to improve the earning capacity of the poor, especially women.

The workshop will be attended by over 40 participants from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyz Republic, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, People's Republic of China, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. Representatives from 10 donor agencies are also expected to participate.

Over the last 11 years, the ADB has approved US$421 million in microfinance projects, mainly in Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Nepal. Others were financed in Kyrgyz Republic and Mongolia.

Microfinance constitutes a broad range of financial services including deposits, loans, payment services, money transfers, and insurance for the poor. Interest in institutional microfinance has burgeoned during the last two decades as international lending institutions and NGOs have supported its development. Once almost exclusively the domain of donors and experimental credit projects, institutional microfinance has evolved into an industry with prospects for rapid growth on a commercial basis and the potential to reach million of poor people in the Asia-Pacific region.

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