Bali to host global policy forum on savings

JAKARTA: Indonesia will host a global policy forum of 200 policy makers and representatives of micro-finance institutions from around 50 countries to exchange experience and knowledge on how to broaden people’s access to financial services.

The second global policy forum of the Bangkok-based Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), which will be co-hosted by Bank Indonesia in Bali from Sept. 27 to 29, is scheduled to be opened by President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono with the theme of Taking Financial Inclusion to the Next Level.

The two-year-old AFI is a global network of policy makers from, among others, central banks and regulatory institutions, which works with its 60 members, including Bank Indonesia, to address issues of financial inclusion in the developing world.

Alyson Slater, AFI director for network and outreach, told a news conference here Wednesday about 2.5 billion
people, around half of the world’s adult population, do not have access to financial services and most of them live in the developing countries.

Bank Indonesia senior researcher for financial stability group Adang K. Saputra said Indonesia is an appropriate host for the global forum not least because of the country’s recent economic success and best practices in
micro-financing and savings scheme to share with other members. — JP