APRACA secretary General participated in Mekong Forum on Modernizing the GMS towards the post –AEC 2015 on as invited by Mekong Institute (MI).

Mekong Forum is a high-level, biennial gathering of senior policymakers, business and civic leaders, academics, and development practitioners interested and involved in Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) Economic Cooperation Programme  and the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). It is organized every two years.

Objectives are 1) to be the forum for experts and practitioners to share success stories, lessons learned and innovative ideas on modernizing public and private sectors as parts of development process in the GMS; 2) to identify areas of collaboration that will synergize development within the GMS and in ASEAN integrating and other cooperation framework; 3) to jointly formulate policy recommendations for the GMS governments to modernize the GMS towards the post-AEC 2015.

Consequently, APRACA is establishing cooperation with MI, University of Khon Kaen, and many other organizations involved in GMS

 Basix, a new member visits  APRACA

Mr. Parthasarathy BL, Senior Vice President (International Consulting) of Basix Social Enterprise Group and CEO of Alliance for Microfinance in Myanmar (AMFIM), Mandalay, Myanmar visited APRACA on 26 June 2015. The discussion with APRACA focused on establishing cooperation with other members of APRACA in the region. APRACA has consequently facilitated Basix in linking with other member institutions such as BAAC, Thailand, RDB, Cambodia, and Vietnam Bank for Rural Development Vietnam.

BASIX provides three services called the Livelihood Triad :

On 21 July 2015, APRACA had welcomed the 8 delegates from Ministry of Agricultural Development, Government of Nepal. Brief-orientation to APRACA was made to provide the visitors an overview of APRACA organization and its operations. Nepal is one of our target countries under the IFAD-APRACA FinServAccess Project. The Project focuses on strengthening and enhancing key players and stakeholders working on dynamic and responsive rural and agricultural development. The institutions and individuals are given avenues to be part of the growing concern of sustaining financial access through policy dialogues, capacity building and knowledge exchange. These are implemented in various innovative activities such as exposure study visits, trainings, researches and forums-workshops. A brief-orientation was made to provide an overview of APRACA. Both organizations have exclusively learned shared various aspects of inclusive growth, sustainable development and future cooperation.

The newly established Agricultural Development Bank of Tanzania (ADBT) led by Mr. Board member visited APRACA on 22 May 2015. ADBT was seeking to learn from and network with the prestigious financial institutions in Asia-Pacific region in order that it could apply to its operations.  This distinctly fosters the partnership with institutions outside our region.

APRACA mission in Nepal

Secretary General together with two Project Managers visited member institutions in Nepal on 7-9 September 2015.

The mission highlighted:

         1) Meeting with all members including Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Agricultural Development Bank Ltd. (ADBL), Rastriya Banijya Bank Ltd.(RBBL), Sana Kisan Bikas Bank Ltd.(SKBBL) Chhimek Laghubitta Bikas Bank Ltd.(CLBBL), and National Cooperative Development Board (NCDB). The meeting focused on how members are coping with the situations and discussion on how APRACA could further help them. The emphasis was also placed on how APRACA and its members can work together in addressing members’ current situation, trends, challenges and expectations.

         2) Meeting with non-members mainly, mainly Microfinance Institutions was very successful. One of them, National Cooperative Bank Ltd.(NCBL) decided to join APRACA. Some others are interested but they have not yet made decision. They commented that the annual membership fee was too high for small institutions. APRACA took this into consideration and informed that this issue was placed in the upcoming APRACA EXCOM for deliberation.

         3) Meeting with funding agencies, UNCDF and USAID Nepal for collaboration and cooperation. APRACA was invited to UNCDF to submit a proposal for designing value chain finance training module and training kit for Banks, Financial institutions, and MSMEs.

         4) Visit to all member head offices for an insightful discussion and consultation as well as enhancement of further relationship and cooperation.

         5) Delivery of the fund donated by APRACA members and Secretariat amounting USD 6,000 to  Nepal Rastra Bank to contribute to Nepal Disaster Relief Fund . In addition, another fund donated by BAAC, Thailand at the amount of THB 2,223,244 or approximately USD 65,690 was delivered to Nepal Government through the Office of Prime Minister, Royal Thai Government on 17 June 2015. Therefore, at least the total amount of donation fund from APRACA was around USD 71,659. Some members may donate directly or through their respective government or agencies. Those who did so, kindly inform us.

The mission was successful and impressive. I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to all CEOs, Executives, and Staff of all member institutions of APRACA for particularly Mr. Maha Prasad Adhikari, APRACA Vice- Chairman for your warm welcome, all supports and arrangements, facilitation, insightful discussion, comments, suggestions, and enhanced cooperation as well as memorable stay in Kathmandu.