The Fourth G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) meeting, taking place in Mumbai from September 14 to 16, 2023, is set to address crucial topics related to digital financial inclusion for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). During this event, discussions will revolve around the ongoing three-year Financial Inclusion Action Plan (FIAP) 2020, which is in its final year and is being implemented by the GPFI.
Discussions will take place on the deliverables related to digital financial inclusion and small and medium enterprises. Over the course of the next two days, the GPFI members will discuss GPFI work regarding implementation of G20 GPFI High Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion, Update of National Remittance Plans and SME best practices and innovative instruments to overcome common constraints in SME financing. A Symposium will also be held on September 16 as part of the GPFI Meeting.
Ahead of the meeting, a Symposium on Digital Public Infrastructure for energizing MSMEs was held. This is one of the series of side events on Digital Public Infrastructure and financial inclusion organized by the G20 India Presidency under the GPFI working group. Ajay Seth, Secretary (Economic Affairs), Ministry of Finance, T Rabi Sankar, Deputy Governor (RBI) and Mohamed Gouled, Vice President (International Finance Corporation) and Dr Arjun Kumar Karki, Global Coordinator-LDC Watch and Former Ambassador of Nepal to USA addressed the symposium.
The symposium saw panel discussions involving international experts around two key themes “Energizing MSMEs for Higher Economic Growth through Digital Public Infrastructure” and “Credit Guarantees and SME ecosystems”. The first panel discussion on energizing MSMEs through DPI was moderated by Matthew Gamser, CEO, SME Finance Forum and the panelists were Sivasubramanian Ramann, Chairman & Managing Director, SIDBI, Ashwini Kumar Tewari, Managing Director, State Bank of India, B G Mahesh, Co-Founder & CEO, Sahamati, Michael Jongeneel, CEO, FMO, Jane Prokop, Executive Vice President, Small and Medium Enterprises, Mastercard. The enriching discussions provided valuable insights into the role of DPI in rapidly advancing the financial inclusion of MSMEs.
The second panel discussion on credit guarantees and SME ecosystems was moderated by Nagla Bahr, Managing Director, Credit Guarantee Company (CGC) Egypt. The panelists were Katrin Sturm, Secretary General, AECM, Sandeep Varma, CEO, CGTSME, Homam Hashem, CEO, Kafalah and Wooinn Park, Deputy Director, KODIT. The World Bank also presented the G20 policy recommendations for ‘Advancing Financial Inclusion and Productivity Gains through Digital Public Infrastructure’ developed under G20 India Presidency, which were recently endorsed by the G20 Leaders in the G20 Summit held in New Delhi.
Economic Advisor, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Chanchal Sarkar, stated that it is a remarkable achievement for the GPFI working group as recently, at the G20 Leader’s Summit held in New Delhi, the leaders endorsed two significant documents produced by GPFI under the India Presidency, namely the G20 Policy Recommendations for Advancing Financial Inclusion and Productivity Gains through Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and the G20 Financial Inclusion Action Plan (FIAP) 2023.
