IFC Joins Forum To Help Promote Cambodian Microfinance amid Global Financial Crisis
In Phnom Penh:
Kunthea Kea
Phone: +855 23 210 922 ext 218
E-mail: kkea@ifc.org
In Hong Kong:
Andrew Mak
Phone: +852 2509 8110
E-mail: amak@ifc.org
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, August 19,
2009—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is helping Cambodian microfinance
institutions strengthen their contribution to the country’s socio-economic
development, and expand financial ervices to the rural population
amid the global financial crisis.
Beginning today, at a two-day forum
co-organized by the National Bank of Cambodia, IFC, the European Union,
and the Cambodia Microfinance Association, senior microfinanciers, bankers,
regulators, and local authorities will discuss how microfinance institutions
could boost the country’s economy, promote financial inclusion, and enhance
customer protection.
“The microfinance sector in Cambodia
has grown fast and significantly contributed to improving access to financial
services for the rural population,” said H.E Chea Chanto, Governor of
the National Bank of Cambodia. “The success of the sector is vital to
ensuring quick financial inclusion. We have adopted legislation that enables
microfinance institutions to mobilize public deposits to help them access
cheaper sources of funds while allowing rural populations to safely
save their hard-earned cash.”
Participants also shared their views
and experiences on how to respond to the global financial crisis, addressing
credit culture, risk and nonperforming loan management, ethical debt collection
practices, financial education, and consumer protection.
“The microfinance sector, which has
loans of more than $280 million outstanding to about a million clients
in rural areas, already has felt the impact of the global financial crisis
as nonperforming loans have increased from under 1 percent a year ago to
3.8 percent as of June 2009,” said Huot Ieng Tong, President of Cambodia
Microfinance Association. “However, given the current crisis, this increase
is reasonable and NPLs are still low by international standards.”
IFC also works with individual microfinance
institutions to help them diversify and focus their strategies, expanding
their product range and improving their risk management capabilities.
“While the crisis has adversely affected
microfinance institutions and their borrowers, it also brings opportunities
for them to review their lending practices and risk and nonperforming loan
management systems so they become more resilient to future crises,” said
Russell Muir, IFC Acting Head of Advisory Services for East Asia and Pacific.
In Cambodia, IFC advisory services are
delivered in partnership with the European Union, Finland, Ireland, the
Netherlands, New Zealand, and Switzerland.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group,
creates opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives.
We foster sustainable economic growth in developing countries by supporting
private sector development, mobilizing private capital, and providing advisory
and risk mitigation services to businesses and governments. Our new investments
totaled $15 billion in fiscal 2009, helping channel capital into developing
countries during the financial crisis. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.
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