2nd Meeting Of Global Partnership For Financial Inclusion To Be Held In Hyd On Mar 6-7

The second meeting of the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) under G20 India Presidency will be held in Hyderabad from March 6-7, a top official said on Friday.

The second GPFI meeting is expected to take forward the discussions on the development of important deliverables for the year including those on Digital Financial Inclusion, SME Finance and development of Financial Inclusion Action Plan 2023 which will guide the financial inclusion work for 2024-26, said Chanchal Sarkar, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs. The pre-events to the second G20 GPFI meeting are intended to exchange ideas and experiences with emerging economies of the Global South on leveraging new innovations such as Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)  including digital payments eco-system leading to enhancing digital financial inclusion, Sarkar told reporters here.

The meeting will be preceded by a Knowledge and Experience Exchange Programme for the emerging economies of the Global South to be held from March 4-6, said G20 chief coordinator Harsh Vardhan Shringla. On March 6, a GPFI Symposium on Digital Innovations in Payments and Remittances will also be held for both G20 and non-G20 countries. The first GPFI meeting was held in Kolkata from January 9-11 where members discussed and agreed upon the work programme and priorities for the year, Sarkar said. The Knowledge and Experience Exchange Programme on advancing digital financial inclusion is expected to see the participation of Ministry of Finance and Central Bank representatives from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jordan, Malawi, Maldives, Nepal, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

Regional organisations, namely, the Asian Development Bank, the African Union Commission, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Arab Monetary Fund, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the Gates Foundation, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and Smart Africa would attend. Experiences and know-how from experts from India, including from the Ministry of Finance, Reserve Bank of India, National Payments Corporation of India, Unique Identification Authority of India will be shared to reflect the Indian experience in transforming the financial inclusion landscape by leveraging DPIs, he said.

This exchange programme will also enable non-G20 Emerging Market Economies (EMEs) to share their priorities, ideas and aspirations for advancing financial inclusion which will be useful takeaways for the G20 as it works towards developing a Financial Inclusion Action Plan (FIAP) for 2024-26, Sarkar added.