BY NED GAGAHE
Solomon Islands will be hosting a one-day country investment roundtable forum next week.
Robert D Kaua, Deputy Secretary Governance of the Ministry of Provincial Government & Institutional Strengthening said that forum will be held on Friday, July 19th, 2024 at the King Solomon Hotel Conference Centre, from 9:00am – 2:30pm.
The FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAO-RAP) is implementing a Technical Cooperation Programme in collaboration with the Asia-Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (APRACA) to facilitate the delivery of effective and inclusive rural financial services in selected five countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Laos, Nepal and Solomon Islands) in the Asia Pacific region.
This effort targets enhancing rural financial services’ effectiveness and inclusivity amidst noted challenges in financing rural and agricultural enterprises.
According to the forum’s concept note, during scoping studies in the countries, it was generally observed that there is a gap in financing the rural and agricultural enterprises due to various factors.
The other highlights of the assessments are limited financial infrastructure, a nascent digital finance landscape, and significant gaps in financial literacy and access in rural communities.
However, one major issue flagged by the financial institutions that there is shortage of bankable projects, and the farmers/agribusiness companies (except few large companies) are not able to bring good and investible proposals.
To resolve this stalemate and disconnect, there is a need to demystify the bankability issues for the small/medium sized rural and agricultural projects which could be done through bringing all the actors in agricultural value chains to a common platform in the form of an investment forum.
The one-day investment forum has been planned in the five selected countries to learn from both the sides on the issues and challenges to reduce the gaps in financing.
