With the Asia-Pacific region becoming a key driver of global politics and economics, Sean Keogh, Director of Sustainable Investing will be a speaker at the “Financial Technology for Development Workshop” on February 27-28 in Bangkok, Thailand – hosted by USAID’s Regional Development Mission for Asia.
Asia is the most dynamic and fast growing nation in the world. The region represents over half the world’s population, experiences sustained economic growth, rapid technological change and increasing connectivity. However, Asia also faces significant development challenges which USAID seeks to bridge with the use of science, technology, innovation, and partnerships. The challenges include areas such as disaster risk reduction, environment and natural resources management and infectious diseases that cross national borders. USAID supports a range of activities and events in Asia to achieve, sustain, and extend the Agency’s development impact in Asia.
A brief description of the workshop activities is described below:
“The Financial Technology for Development Workshop will bring together financial technology experts, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, private sector organizations, donor organizations, non-governmental organizations, and implementing partners to deliberate on financial technology and its potentials in accelerating financial inclusion and addressing development challenges.
The Workshop will showcase state of the art approaches and feature presentations, panels, and interactive discussion on how to leverage the powerful revolution in digital development to tackle long standing development problems such as poverty etc. The event aims to promote the sharing of experiences among development practitioners and financial technology experts.”
The digital economy is rapidly evolving. This evolution is characterized by new modes of communicating and sharing financial information, conducting business and enhancing decision making with data. With the push of a button, inclusive electronic payments can eliminate the corruption, inefficiencies and security risks brought on by cash payments. New FinTech-enabled solutions driven by the increasingly ubiquitous and affordable mobile internet are reinventing financial services available to the poor. Making sense of this rapidly changing space can be overwhelming to development practitioners. This learning event will help sort out the fiction from the reality and offer practical advice to development professionals interested in leveraging this powerful revolution in digital development.