ISLAMABAD:Her Majesty Queen Máxima will visit Pakistan from November 25 to27 as special advocate of the UN Secretary-General for Inclusive Financingfor Development (UNSGSA).
In a series of meetings, she will discuss the progress of access tofinancial services to improve the economic position of the country’sinhabitants, a statement received here on Friday from Pakistan Embassy theHague, Netherlands said.
Queen Máxima visits Pakistan at the invitation of the government. It is afollow-up to the UN visit in February 2016.
Queen Máxima focuses, among other things, on the importance of financialservices for women. Only seven percent them have a bank account andgender-based data collection is needed to understand their specific accessand use needs.
Another way to connect more people is to digitize government payments suchas social benefits. In addition, “fintech” offers great possibilities forsimple banking, for example via a mobile phone.
To be able to do this safely and efficiently, changes to regulations arealso needed to ensure privacy, among other things.
About 21% of adults in Pakistan now have a bank account, in 2014 this was13% (Global Findex). Despite this increase, 99 million Pakistani still donot have access to financial services such as a bank or savings account,insurance, loans, pensions or digital payment methods.
This limits their chances of development. This particularly concerns peoplein poverty situations, women, small businesses and people in remoteagricultural areas.
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During her stay in Pakistan, Queen Máxima will also talk with, amongothers, international development partners, representatives from thefintech sector, Governor State Bank of Pakistan Reza Baqir, Abdul HafeezShaikh, finance adviser to the Prime Minister and Usman Mubin, Chairman ofthe National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).
She will also expected to call on President Dr Arif Alvi and Prime MinisterImran Khan.She will present at the launch of the “Micropayments Gateway”. This is acentral bank initiative to reduce the cost of small payments in order tostimulate digital payments, in particular for people in poverty situations.In addition, she pays a field visit to a project developed within the CEOPartnership for Economic Inclusion (CEOP).
CEOP is an informal partnership of ten international companies fromdifferent sectors to improve access to financial services and increasemarket potential. They met for the first time in January 2018 at theinvitation of Queen Máxima at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
In Lahore, Queen Máxima will visit a number of projects that focus ondigital financial services that, among other things, contribute to thedevelopment of entrepreneurs.
Since 2009, Queen Máxima, as a UN special advocate, has been committed tomaking financial services accessible to all, including low-income groupsand small and medium-sized businesses, and thus increasing their chances ofeconomic and social development, the statement said.
