Collaboration among countries in their pursuit of development in a balanced and inclusive manner was the main theme of the an international symposium entitled “Development with a Human Face –Asia’s Development Agenda in Regional and International Fora”.

The symposium was hosted in Jakarta this week by the government of Indonesia, which holds the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) in 2011, together with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI).

The symposium gathered high-level policymakers and other stakeholders from ASEAN countries and beyond, and focused on selected key topics for development: aid for trade, financial inclusion, and social safety nets.

As a resource person for the topic of financial inclusion, AFI Executive Director Alfred Hannig presented AFI’s main activities including the results of the G20 process on financial inclusion which resulted in the G20 Principles for Innovative Financial Inclusion and a new Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) – in which AFI is a key implementing partner.

This sparked dynamic discussion among the participants regarding some of the key the G20 Principles such as leadership and coordination. There was a common recognition that since financial inclusion contributes to poverty alleviation and economic growth it should therefore be a priority of governments, but that broad public-private partnerships need to be nurtured for the sustainable implementation of solutions that can help extend financial services to the poor. As an example, the case of Indonesia was highlighted – the government has formulated a broad national financial inclusion strategy that clearly enables collaboration among ministries and other relevant institutions and stakeholders.

Customer protection and empowerment was highlighted as a key success factor for financial inclusion. Ensuring vulnerable customers are equipped with the knowledge and skills not only to understand and benefit from the risks, responsibilities, and opportunities that come along with access to various financial services or products.

A recurrent theme at the Symposium was that many ASEAN countries had experimented and innovated with approaches to financial inclusion – and that a great opportunity for peer learning and knowledge exchange is available. Discussants noted that success factors may vary greatly from one country to another, but that countries must find way to extract and share key lessons learned to help accelerate the process of innovating successful financial inclusion solutions in their respective countries.

Governor Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) stated that BNM finds great value in the peer learning approach and gave an overview of the Bank’s Financial Inclusion Advisers (FIA) Programme, which is a platform for practitioners and regulators from Commonwealth nations to capture practical aspects of how to implement financial inclusion successfully. Alfred Hannig concurred with Governor Zeti’s remarks, adding that AFI commends the FIA’s activities and is proud to work in collaboration with this program and others around the world that encourage mutual development through peer-to-peer knowledge exchange. He went on to mention that this peer learning approach will be at the core of future of successful development initiatives.