Country to showcase potential

ABA AGM in October:

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

The Asian Bankers Association’s (ABA) 28th general meeting and two day conference will be held in Colombo from October 4.

Rajendra Theagarajah Picture by Saliya Rupasinghe

This is the first time that this event is held in South Asia where Sri Lanka will have the opportunity to showcase the country’s potential to international banks.

The country could derive benefits as it is at a crucial stage of development at present, HNB Managing Director and CEO and ABA Chairman Rajendra Theagarajah said.

The annual symposium will provide networking opportunities where it will create an ideal platform to come together and exchange views, share problems, explore common opportunities and lobby issues of policy advocacy, he said.

Nearly 200 leading bankers and bank regulators from around the Asia-Pacific region are expected to attend this event. The theme of this year’s conference will be “Asia taking the lead in the global economy; A bankers’ perspective” with the key objectives to explore and understand the responsibilities of Asia in the global economy and how Asia will play a leading role in future, to exchange ideas covering the challenges and opportunities of Asian banks in their emergence as global market players and to provide a forum for Asian banks to discuss international regulatory standards and the way forward.

The ABA advocated the formulation of a comprehensive Asian currency bond market in the recent past.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has also taken initiatives to develop the country’s bond market as the banking sector could play a dominant role in the country’s progress.

Sri Lanka has the potential to align the development of the world bond market and use the global investor base to further develop the local bond market.

The ABA conference will also help increase the country’s banking inclusion rate which is at present only 40%, Theagarajah said.