International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Bangladesh Bank (BB) jointly organised a workshop to share the experiences of how foreign banks and non-financial banking institutions are responding to the non-financial services the small and medium enterprises (SME) need. The joint workshop was held at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the city on Wednesday.

Sukumar Sinha Choudhury, general manager of BB, in his welcome address, said, the IFC is giving full supports to the BB.

Joint initiative is essential for more development, the central bank official said.

The joint workshop was also attended by Arsalan Alfred Ni, regional IFC SME ventures coordinator, Nasar Khan, access to finance team of IFC Bangladesh, Michel Botzung, global product specialist, farmers and SME training of IFC, Devrim Ziya Tavil, director (SME Banking) of Turkish Economy Bank), Pronav Toshniwal, marketing manager of ICICI Bank of India, Reazuddin Mosharaf, managing director of Windmill Education Services Ltd. and senior officials of the distinguished local banks.

Speaking at the workshop, Arsalan Alfred Ni talked about on the demand of SME financing.About 80 per cent business people of Bangladesh needs SME loan, he said.  Therefore, the local banks and non-bank financial institutions should focus on diversifying their activities to the important areas, particularly the farmers; because they are not getting sufficient SME loans from the banks.

Michel Botzung gave his speech on why banks in emerging markets are increasingly providing non-financial services to the SME.With the local banks, Devrim Ziya Tavil, director (SME Banking) of Turkish Economy Bank), and Pronav Toshniwal, marketing manager of ICICI Bank of India, shared their experiences on providing non-financial services in Turkey and India respectively.

The Independent/Bangladesh/ 7th June 2012