India’s central bank governor yesterday said ensuring equal financial opportunity for all was the major challenge for sustainable growth in emerging economies like Bangladesh and India.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan said: “Capitalism is growing and the central challenge is how to ensure the opportunities of access to assets for all.”
He was speaking to reporters at a question and answer session during the opening ceremony of the SAARCFINANCE Governors’ Symposium on Financial Inclusion in the capital.
He said financial inclusion brings people into the financial net and gives them opportunities and capabilities. Having capabilities makes people strong economic citizens.
Bangladesh was doing well with regard to financial inclusion, he said.
“Finance is a lubricant that facilitates and empowers people. But some magic is needed to get strong growth … things like developing entrepreneurship, job creation and infrastructure projects,” he said.
He said the fall in international oil prices had been tremendously beneficial for oil importers like Bangladesh and India and had a positive impact on the fiscal deficit as well as easing inflation.
He suggested that solar energy could be a viable alternative to oil and that tremendous change was already taking place in the energy sectors of the developing countries.
He identified cyber crime as a formidable new challenge for the financial sector.
“We should not over-regulate the financial sector in emerging countries like ours to avoid a financial crisis,” he said.
The opening ceremony of the SAARCFINANCE Governors’ Symposium, organised by the central bank of Bangladesh, was held yesterday morning and was chaired by Dasho Daw Tenzin, the governor of Bhutan’s central bank.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman, in his address at the opening ceremony, urged the SAARCFINANCE member central banks to work closely to achieve sustainable economic growth by strengthening financial inclusion initiatives.
“We SAARCFINANCE member central banks can work closer together to steal a march on our advanced economy counterparts in better sustaining our growth and stability over the longer term,” the governor said.
Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury discussed the measures that were taken by the country’s central bank to promote financial inclusion, in his welcome speech.
Lakshmanan Savithri, the director of the SAARC secretariat, also spoke at the function.
The governors of Bangladesh Bank, the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan, the Reserve Bank of India, Nepal Rastra Bank and the State Bank of Pakistan and Deputy Governors from Bangladesh Bank, the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka are attending the symposium.
