A.  OPENING SESSION

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.