SOM Shares Philippine Financial Inclusion Landscape

From left to right: Mr. Dinh Xuan Ha (Banking Strategy Institute, State Bank of Viet Nam), Usec. Manuel A.J. Teehankee (PH Senior Official), and Mr. Alwaleed Alatabani (Lead Financial Specialist, World Bank)

30 August 207 HO CHI MINH – In a Symposium on Advancing Economic, Financial and Social Inclusion in APEC on 28 August 2017, DFA Undersecretary Manuel A.J. Teehankee, Philippine Senior Official (SOM) for APEC, spoke on the state of financial inclusion in the Philippines and the needs of underserved sectors.   The Symposium is a sideline event of the Third Senior Officials’ Meeting, in Grand Ballroom, Sheraton Hotel, Ho Chi Minh, Viet Nam. 

Saying that only 43 percent of Fiipino adults have savings, and only 33 percent save in banks, Undersecretary Teehankee said that marginalized groups like MSMEs, overseas Filipinos and their beneficiaries, agriculture and agrarian reform sectors, indigenous peoples and cultural minorities, women, the youth, and persons with disabilities should be better served by financial institutions and financal services providers.  He also pointed out the need for intermediate arrangements in order to bring informal sector financial transactions and savings into the mainstream.

“The target, of course, key to APEC’s inclusive growth agenda, and number one in our target list are the MSMEs. The greatest opportunity for economic growth and development is allowing financial inclusion to [reach] as many MSMEs as possible,” Undersecretary Teehankee remarked.  He then briefly introduced eight domestic measures and policy initiatives to achieve a higher level of financial inclusion in the Philippines.

Undersecretary Teehankee also highighted the Philippine-led initiative in APEC for Financial inclusion, embodied in the APEC Cebu Action Plan (CAP) launched in 2015. The CAP “seeks to promote policies, rules and practices across APEC economies to deepen financial markets that offer diversified financial instruments; advance financial inclusion for all households and business (including those led by women); and enhance financial resilience to market volatility, and mitigate risks of natural disasters.”

The outcomes of the symposium will contribute toward shaping the proposed APEC Action Agenda on Promoting Economic, Financial and Social Inclusion in the APEC Region, a document that aims to “achieve a strategic, multifaceted and collaborative approach to promoting economic, financial and social inclusion” within APEC. END

(From left to right: Mr. Dinh Xuan Ha (Banking Strategy Institute, State Bank of Viet Nam), Usec. Manuel A.J. Teehankee (PH Senior Official), Mr. Alwaleed Alatabani (Lead Financial Specialist, World Bank), Mr. Eduardo Pedrosa (Secretary General, Pacific Economic Cooperation Council), Amb. Valery Sorokin (APEC Senior Official, Russia), Ms. Donna Jean (Policy Advisor, OECD, Mr. Can Van Luc, VNCPEC)