Members of microfinance institutions learn about ‘Green Finance’
 
Representatives of financial institutions and development partners of the Lao Access to Finance Fund (LAFF) of the Bank of the Lao PDR (BOL) were provided insights at a seminar on green finance or sustainable funding.

Banking officials and members of the Lao Microfinance Association (LMFA) who participated in the “Green Finance” seminar on Tuesday.

LAFF worked with the Lao Microfinance Association (LMFA) to jointly organise a seminar on the theme of “Green Finance” as part of efforts to promote sustainable funding and efficient access to finance.
The seminar gathered the members of LMFA so that they could have a better understanding of the concept of green finance.
The technical seminar, held in Vientiane on Tuesday, was also attended by the Director General of BOL’s Banking Operation Service Department, Mr Khamkeo Visisombath, and representatives of other development partners.
LAFF is owned and managed by BOL’s Banking Operations Department, and it was initially funded by Germany through the KfW Development Bank to facilitate access to long-term finance for households and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in rural areas.
In 2014, the government provided 3 million euros for the first phase of LAFF, and an additional 6.8 million euros for the fund was approved in 2020, with the focus on facilitating long-term finance for MSMEs and strengthening capacity-building for BOL and its partner financial institutions.
The fund’s donors hoped the additional funds for LAFF would be able to accelerate access to funding for a much larger number of MSMEs and fill a significant gap, especially in rural areas, by enabling local entrepreneurs running MSMEs to access financial services through the formal banking system and microfinance institutions.
LAFF cooperates with seven finance institutions as partners, including three commercial banks and four microfinance institutions. A total of 135 billion kip has been loaned since the fund was established.
The primary target of the project is supporting the commercial financial sector of Laos by providing sustainable and needs-based financial services to MSMEs in rural areas.
This also helps improve private sector productivity and competitiveness, and consequently supports the creation of jobs and reduction of poverty.
According to the initial aspects of the project, the partner finance institutions of LAFF had the opportunity to discuss the definition of green finance as the reference for implementing the project and for encouraging partners to extend loans to entrepreneurs in a sustainable manner.

By Times Reporters
(Latest Update June 23, 2022)