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Asia-Pacific Regional
Microcredit Summit 2008



The Asia Pacific Regional Microcredit Summit 2008 was held at the Bali International Convention Center at Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, from July 28 - 30, 2008. More than 900 participants from 50 countries participated at the Summit. The honorable President of Indonesia, Dr. H. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, inaugurated the Summit at a packed ceremony on July 23. Indonesian First Lady, Ms. Ani Yudhoyono was named "Patroness of Indonesian Microfinance" by the Indonesian microfinance community at the ceremony. Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and Mr. Sam Daley Harris, Director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, also spoke at the opening session.

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Audience at the GGN Session in Bali Summit
The three-day summit included 6 plenary sessions, of which 1 session especially focused on Institutional Action Plans (IAP), 24 workshop sessions, more than 13 associated sessions and 4 Council Meetings. The plenary sessions were rated as "excellent" or "good" by more than 75% of the summit participants who responded to the review survey and more than 80% rated the workshops the same way.

Grameen Trust organized a heavily attended Associated Session entitled: "Grameen Global Network: Experience Sharing and Programs Update". More than 200 participants attended the session chaired by Professor Yunus.

Grameen Trust set up an attractive and informative display booth at the Summit. Publications and information from Grameen Trust, Grameen Bank, and various Grameen partners were available at the booth.

Grameen Trust and Grameen Foundation USA hosted a reception for Grameen Global Network (GGN) partners in the evening of July 28, 2008.

Professor Yunus led the panel discussions on the very popular Plenary Session entitled: "Expanding Commercialization Responsibly: Reflecting on the Compartamos IPO." Professor H. I. Latifee was a panelist in two workshops: "Overcoming Regulatory and Legal Constraints to Savings Mobilization" and "The Floodgates are Open: Channeling the Flows of Funds for Microfinance Effectively." The Grameen delegates were panelists in two plenary sessions, one council session, eight workshop sessions and two associated sessions.


Prof. Yunus and First Lady Ms. Ani Yudhoyono at the Summit
Special focus was given to address the development of microfinance in the host country, Indonesia. President Yudhoyono highlighted that despite the existence of 50,000 microfinance institutions in Indonesia, there were still 40 million Indonesians who do not have access to micro credit services. Most of those not served by microcredit lived in remote areas with geographic and infrastructure restrictions, and lack of information on microcredit. President Yudhoyono said that the Indonesian government is committed to developing the remote areas and opening access to microcredit to residents in the areas.

The Microfinance Transparency initiative was also launched at the Bali Summit. MFTransparency, as the non-governmental organization is known, is a global initiative for fair and transparent pricing in the Microfinance industry. It aims to be the venue for the microfinance industry to publicly demonstrate its commitment to pricing transparency, integrity and poverty alleviation.

Former President of Peru, Mr. Alejandro Toledo, delivered a moving speech at the closing dinner of the summit.

Report by Tamim Islam