Rural Agrifinance Conference in Washington DC:

Chandula keynote speaker

“Cracking the Nut - overcoming the obstacles to rural and agriculture finance” is a conference organised by AZMJ, a USA based global consulting agency involved in services to transfer international development and build local capacity focusing on rural agriculture finance in partnership with the World Bank, FAO, Inter-American Development Bank and USAID. This timely and important conference will draw a large number of senior level experts and specialists at the global level, which will be held in Washington DC from June 20-22.

The conference aims to impact all the world’s leading agriculture development and finance leaders by uniting them in collaborative pursuit of learning and leverage of large scale changes and the deliberations and the intense dialogue on the areas concerning overcoming obstacles to rural agriculture finance. The conference is named “Cracking the Nut” as rural agriculture has always been a tough nut to crack. Over 300 delegates expected from all over the world covering Asia, Africa, Latin America, USA and Europe will include Practitioners, Private sector Professionals, Investors, Capacity Builders, Funders, Development & Commercial Bankers and Research Professionals who work on the rural agriculture development at the national we well as international level.

Chandula, who was invited by the World Bank in January 2011 to speak at the World Banks’ Agrifin Forum on Small Holder Agriculture Finance is again given this honour of being the keynote speaker of this high profile and timely conference that will be held under the patronage of the World Bank, FAO, Inter-American Development Bank and USAID to be held in Washington DC.

His keynote address is titled - Private Sector perspective on Rural and Agriculture Finance and Chandula will probably highlight the approach taken by Hatton National Bank in creating and increasing greater access to rural agriculture finance in Sri Lanka and Hatton National Bank’s lead role in cost effective outreach.

The conference will also witness some of the experts and specialists in the field of Agriculture Finance and some of the key stakeholders addressing issues concerning the following areas:-

Making markets work for Rural and Agricultural Finance:- creating and enabling environment and overcome policy and market constraints that hinder rural and agricultural development. What role can finance play in facilitating that development? Forging linkages between financial institutions and rural enterprises.

Forging Agricultural Finance Innovations:- What are some of the most successful approaches to financing agriculture and how can they be adapted to other environments.

Reducing cost of rural outreach:- What technologies and innovative delivery methods can be applied to reduce transaction costs associated with serving rural areas.

Managing Risk Effectively:- How can risk management be improved to increase access to finance, including savings, insurance, value chain approaches etc.,?

Attracting Private Investment What will it take to attract private investors and socially responsible investment funds to support the expansion of rural and agricultural development and finance in developing countries? How can we link green investors to rural and agricultural development?

Several leading speakers of international repute will address the conference