As a partner-institution of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council or ABAC and as part of ADFIAP’s engagement with international organizations in the region, ADFIAP, represented by its Secretary General, Mr. Octavio B. Peralta, was among the select resource institutions invited by the Advisory Group on APEC Financial System Capacity-Building to share their work and advocacy on financial inclusion and infrastructure finance, both key themes of the advisory group and ADFIAP’s as well.
On financial inclusion, Mr. Peralta reported to the attending delegates ADFIAP’s access to finance (A2F) advocacy for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) since most, if not all, ADFIAP member-DFIs are assisting this important sector of the economy. In 2011, ADFIAP has co-organized two A2F financial inclusion events, one was the AusAid-supported conference in Manila held on June 27-28, 2011 with the Australian APEC Study Centre in Melbourne https://www.adfiap.org/news/adfiap-australian-apec-centre-hold-forum-on-msme-access-to-finance/ and the other with the Department (Ministry) of Finance of the Republic of the Philippines on September 15, 2011 in Honolulu, Hawaii https://www.adfiap.org/news/adfiap-organizes-apec-dialogue-on-financial-inclusion/
On infrastructure finance, Mr. Peralta informed the group of its current work on assisting in the build-up of a DFI network database to facilitate infrastructure project preparation and financing in the region for the National Infrastructure Information Systems (NIIS), a web-based information platform developed with support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Republic of Korea through the ADB’s Regional Technical Assistance 7379: “Establishment of e-Systems to Support Infrastructure Financing in Asia”. The NIIS https://www.infrastructure-system.info/index.htm is particularly useful in the initial and early development stages of infrastructure project finance by providing a series of tools to: (a) capture key project data in a systematic and consistent way across multiple locations and multiple sectors (b) identify and fill any gaps in project planning and preparation (c) identify and mitigate project risks and (d) guide a project towards PPP structuring and private-sector institutional and commercial investment by providing links to marketing and funding resources. NIIS users include project developers such as government and government agencies; project advisors and developers; and financiers such as banks, investment funds, DFIs and other financial institutions.
APEC https://www.apec.org/ is the premier Asia-Pacific economic forum whose primary goal is to support sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the region. APEC has 21 member economies. The word ‘economies’ is used to describe APEC members because the APEC cooperative process is predominantly concerned with trade and economic issues, with members engaging with one another as economic entities.
The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) https://www.abaconline.org/v4/index.php was created by the APEC Economic Leaders in November 1995 to provide advice on the implementation of the Osaka Action Agenda and on other specific business sector priorities, and to respond when the various APEC fora request information about business-related issues or to provide the business perspective on specific areas of cooperation.