Opening remarks from Mr. Rachadi
Iskandar, Director of Administration and Finance of NAM CSSTC On behalf of the Board of
Directors of NAM CSSTC, I would like to welcome all participants to the
Regional Training on “Macro Credit Scheme”. This training is held in
cooperation with Bank BRI, International Visitors Programme, and is a
follow-up of the Workshop on Micro Credit Scheme in Nam Member Countries
(Empowering women’s role in small scale business development), which was
previously held in Jakarta on June 2002. The Government of the Republic of
Indonesia financed both programmes. The
majority of the poor population in the developing countries lives in
villages and most of them are women. They play significant role in rural
development particularly in helping to cultivate land and harvesting
agriculture. Many of them are also engaged in household cottage
industries. However, lack of education and access to capital to support
their activities has hindered the growth of their “business”, and as a
result they remain poor. With
this is in mind, NAM CSSTC took the initiative to facilitate cooperation
among NAM member countries especially in the area of micro credit
services. It has been identified that some developing countries have quite
many credit institutions specializing in providing loans to farmers and
fishermen; however the result is still less satisfactory, most of village
people still remain poor. A sound and professional credit institution that
possesses a good credit system and has successful records in meeting the
need of the village people would be a great help for the community. Bank
Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), which is a one of the leading banks in Indonesia,
specialized in retail and micro banking has vast experiences and
reputations in providing loan to farmers, fishermen and to small and
medium enterprises in the rural as well as in urban areas. Other micro
finance institutions in Indonesia as well as abroad have also adapted
BRI’s micro banking system. NAM CSSTC’s cooperation with BRI to
conduct this training aims to target micro credit practitioners in NAM
member countries especially in East Asia and the Pacific region in order
to build up the capacity of those who are directly involved in micro
credit practices. The Board of Directors of NAM CSSTC hopes that this training would enrich our knowledge and could be applied in the respective institution/organization in your countries. Finally I wish you success with your five days training. The NAM CSSTC is open to suggestions from you for the improvement our future of our programmes. |