The 21 st APRACA General Assembly (GA) and 70 th Executive Committee (EXCOM) meeting was convened at the Hotel Hilton, Colombo, Sri Lanka on 8 – 9 October 2018 in conjunction with the Regional Policy forum on ‘Financing Micro Small and Medium Enterprises: Solution for Missing Middle’. The programme was attended by 116 participants of 43 Member Institutions from 17 countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The members present lauded the performance of APRACA during the last 2 years in terms of its achievements to the strategic plan and also approved the new strategic plan which was aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations with some additional inputs. During the 21 st GA, Bank of Ceylon has been selected for Chairmanship of APRACA and NABARD, India was selected as the Vice-Chairman for the years 2018-2020.

A Regional policy forum was jointly organized by APRACA and the Bank of Ceylon, on 8 October 2018 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The forum was hosted by the Bank of Ceylon, a driving force in the Government of Sri Lanka’s agenda for economic sustainability. The Minister of Finance and Mass Media Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, Minister of Social Welfare and Primary Industries Hon. Daya Gamage and the Governor of
Central Bank of Sri Lanka Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy addressed the forum. Apart from the CEOs and heads of the financial institutions present in the forum, the Deputy Governor from Nepal Rastra Bank, the
President of the Agricultural Development Bank of China (ADBC), Chairman of National bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India also addressed the forum.

The Secretary General of APRACA was invited by SAFIN (Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network) to join the second annual plenary meeting held in Rome during 11-12 October 2018. APRACA is a member of Steering committee of SAFIN and continuously contributing to its knowledge partnership among the members.

Dr. Prasun Kumar Das, Secretary General of APRACA was invited by the ESA Division of FAO, HQ in Rome to deliver a webinar on ‘Pro-poor Financial Service Provision in Asia and Pacific: Scaling the Best Practices’. The focus of the presentation was on the process of replication, theory of change, results of the piloting to generate evidences and the policy engagements through organizing dissemination workshop across the Asian region.

APRACA was invited by IFAD to join the Regional Workshop on “Inclusive and Sustainable Rural Transformation: IFAD’s priorities in the Asia Pacific Region for 2019-21”. The workshop was designed to bring together IFAD’s partners and counterparts to discuss a roadmap to sustainable, inclusive and innovative rural transformation in the region and to identify the way forward in terms of innovative approaches in operations and knowledge development and partnerships.

APRACA was invited by the CICA to join the World Congress on ‘Risk Management in Agriculture’ which was held in collaboration with the Ministry to Agriculture, Government of Switzerland in Bern during 22-24 October 2018. APRACA presented the case of ‘Prospects of Agricultural Insurance in Asia-Pacific: Scale and Penetration’.

Mekong Inclusive Growth Forum, a multi-stakeholder platform working on inclusive growth of the countries in the Mekong region invited APRACA to join the stakeholders meet in Bangkok during 2-3 October 2018. The Forum was established as a way to enhance economic development in the region by identifying priority actions and facilitating greater cooperation between Mekong countries. APRACA presented its work in the region on ‘Cross Boarder Supply Chain Development through Linking Small Business with Finance and Markets’.

The 25th World Congress organized by WSBI in New Delhi which was jointly hosted by the State Bank of
India and NABARD (both are the members of APRACA). APRACA Secretary General was invited to chair the session on ‘Two worlds no longer apart – rural and local development for growth in harmony’.