A two-day-long international conference on Bridging the Gap between Micro and SME Finance begins in the city today (Monday). SouthAsia Enterprise Development Facility (SEDF) is organising the conference at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in association with the World Bank Group and the IFC. SEDF Group Programme Manager (Financial Markets) Gilles Galludec informed this at a press conference in a city hotel Sunday. He said a good number of financial institutions including world famous banks and non-government organisations (NGOs) will participate in the conference. Besides, experts from both home and abroad will perticipate in deliberations and share their experiences in micro-finance and SME development. Among them, Grameen Bank Managing Director Muhammad Yunus and PlaNet Finance President Jacques Attali will also exchange their views, Galludec added. Chief executive officers (CEO) of local and international banks with experience in micro and SME financing will also take part in the conference. Bangladesh has been chosen for the event for its being the birth place of the micro-finance concept. The participants will share their global experience and look into the ways and means of how to meet the fund requirement of the people needing more than micro-financing package. They will also showcase the global performance of SME funding in the conference, Gilles further said. SEDF Senior Financial Markets Specialist M Rehan Rashid said micro-finance has been playing a vital role in poverty alleviation and has helped in the growth of 'enterprise culture' across the globe over the last two decades.
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