Financial inclusion can ensure access to credit for all: Experts

Economists and bankers suggested Tuesday for ensuring greater access to credit for all segments of the society, particularly for the poor, through financial inclusion. Their observations came at a SAARCFINANCE seminar titled 'Financial Inclusion: The Role of Central Banks in SAARC Region', organised by the Bangladesh Bank (BB) at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the city. They also said the commercial banks should move forward to provide loans to efficient clients for running the economy properly. "The rate of repayment of the poor is higher than that of the financial and business elite in each of the South Asian countries," Chairman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Prof. Rehman Sobhan said, adding that formal financial sector should lend fund to the people, who are efficient clients. Concentrating on lending to the politically empowered elite, who repay their debts only periodically, is actually bad banking and an inefficient running of economy, the senior economist noted. He also suggested that the government should raise capital through issuing mutual funds for implementing big infrastructure projects like the Padma Bridge. Mentioning that the total deposit of the Grameen Bank stood at US$968 million, he stressed the need to find out how the savings of the poor could be utilised. Terming insurance as an important dimension of the financial inclusion, former finance minister M Syeduzzaman said insurance coverage protects farmers from risks and also helps them to recoup damage of their crops. "The concept of insurance for the poor farmers has been developed not only in South Asia, but also in Africa and Latin Africa," the former finance minister said, adding that BRAC has started insurance schemes for the farmers experimentally in Bangladesh. Emphasising the need for proper use of subsidy directed lending, particularly to the SME (small and medium enterprise) sector, he said the central bank should strengthen its supervision and monitoring to ensure proper use of such loans. He also said it has been reported that some SME loans have been diverted to stock market recently. Citing different initiatives like opening of bank account with only Tk 10 and mobile banking, Mr Syeduzzaman said the role of the central bank of Bangladesh is actively governments particularly in the Western World being trapped between global economies and local politics", in a situation where politicians there seem to "have been imprisoned by a failure of nerve". Professionals are now getting their entry to the domain of politics. But it is still doubtful whether such professionals -- without having a proper understanding of people's pulse in addressing problems like depressed living standards, rising unemployment and penny-pinching public services -- will be able to deliver goods. So far so good. Despite all its odds in the present context, history unquestionably is on the side of political pluralism. The 'Arab spring' this year has, once again, proved this. It is no good blaming politics. Of course, elections do not make democracies. The moot factor for proper functioning of democracy lies in the task of building institutions to entrench the rule of law. And that is an unmistakable fact that politicians everywhere do need to appreciate more in their deeds than in their words. On this momentous occasion, this paper reiterates its stance on making strenuous efforts by all concerned for strengthening democracy through a focused attention given to institutionalising its principles and ideals as the road to shared progress for this country's teeming millions. This paper will like to share the joy over its stepping into the 19th year of publication with its readers, patrons, writers, well-wishers and all others concerned, with the hope that the fruits of democracy would enable the people of this country to savour freedom and independence through flourishment of their individual dynamism, creativity and enterprising qualities. To mark the anniversary of 18th year of this paper's publication, this special issue of 124 pages, in all, is being published in one-run. The publication, however, is one month and ten days behind the schedule, as this paper launched its publication on November 10, 1993. The delay in publication is mainly because of the reason for not getting all its inputs -- write-ups and every other related thing -- ready in time. This paper believes that all concerned will appreciate this reason, in consideration of the constraints that have become a business-as-usual matter in every sphere of our national life. The write-ups, analyses, articles, views and comments by different reputed professionals in various domains do provide ample insights into the state of the country's economy and other related issues. This paper believes that its readers will find such inputs quite useful and relevant to appreciating and understanding the subjects covered through this special anniversary issue, in a clear perspective. On its part, this paper reaffirms here its commitment to upholding the principles of objective journalism and unbiased news which are, to put it very modestly, its main strength. It has traversed a long way and has, in its most humble ways, made its whole efforts in past 18 years to help promote the growth of economic or business journalism. And its efforts have not gone in vain. The growth of this daily over the years does bear it out. It is certainly no mean achievement that this specialised daily now occupies the second position among the country's English-language newspapers, in terms of readership of its print copies. The internet readership base of the FE is nearly 0.5 million (five lakh), spread all over the world. As a financial daily, the FE continues to track, record, analyse and interpret the economic changes that take place in the country, in the region and also in the world outside. Business journalism, as we all know, covers news, features and articles about people, places and related to the field of business and economy. It is a welcome development in Bangladesh that most newspapers, magazines, television and radio news carry an economic or business segment. This paper believes that more coverage, reviews and analyses by publications, radio and television channels would be a positive factor for the flourishment of business, financial and economic journalism in this country. This is also a demand-driven situation that the media as a whole will have to meet and address. Having noted this, this will be befitting to state at this stage that development of economic, financial or business journalism does largely depend on the work environment. This environment relates to the functioning of free media which is, of course, an integral part of democracy. However, it depends just as much on the climate in which is operates, meaning laws and regulations, as it does on the people behind the scenes. In this context, skill of journalists is also an important issue. Skilled journalists having the professional qualities, can play a very important role for providing citizens with access to information and critical thought in an objective manner in all segments of journalism. It is not always true that the media industry "pours forth an unremitting diet of gloom". Objective journalism that demands that the practitioners themselves acquire the skill and have proper understanding of both conceptual aspects of issues and subjects under report or discussion, does not thrive on pessimism and negative news all the time. Rather, if the realities are not reflected in news coverage and comments, that causes a disservice. Facts are matters of realities and must be disseminated properly with conceptual clarity and contextual understanding. This is perhaps all the more the case with economic journalists. We, in the FE, give utmost importance to this, while abiding by professional ethics and code of conduct that are much relevant particularly to the pursuit of objective economic journalism. We will continue to do this in the future.