{"id":113663,"date":"2021-04-19T15:39:48","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T22:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=113663"},"modified":"2021-04-19T15:39:48","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T22:39:48","slug":"the-pathfinder-foundation-and-visa-inc-in-discussion-to-promote-digitalization-and-financial-inclusion-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/04\/19\/the-pathfinder-foundation-and-visa-inc-in-discussion-to-promote-digitalization-and-financial-inclusion-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pathfinder Foundation and VISA Inc in discussion to promote digitalization and financial inclusion in Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pathfinder Foundation (PF)<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The\nPathfinder Foundation (PF) together with VISA Inc are conducting a series of\ndiscussions on promoting digitalization and financial inclusion in Sri Lanka.\nThe PF, a non \u2013 partisan research and advocacy think tank is known to play a\ncatalytic role in research and analysis aimed at contributing to economic\npolicy reforms in Sri Lanka. In this endeavor, over the years, the Foundation\nhas established a wide and effective network of academics, experts, senior\ngovernment officials and policy \u2013 makers to promote economic reform in the\ncountry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

VISA Inc,\nalong with its partners, have been working towards promoting digitalization and\nfinancial inclusion in the country. Their objective is to work towards\nintroducing new technologies like contactless payments in Sri Lanka. However,\nthe current pandemic has brought to the fore some key issues as well as\nopportunities and VISA would like to utilize this to create awareness and\nsupport digitalization in sectors, which are still heavily reliant on cash.\nVISA believes that areas such as MSME, Transit and Tourism will play a critical\nrole in determining the recovery of Sri Lankan economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\ninitiative is spearheaded by Mr. Rajendra Theagarajah, Senior Visiting Fellow,\nPathfinder Foundation and renowned banker,\nwho, with his 36 years of experience in banking, both locally and\ninternationally, is a veteran in the financial services sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together the Pathfinder Foundation and VISA will conduct\ndiscussions with key stakeholders from industry, government, regulatory and\nthink tanks in areas such as Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises and Small and\nMedium Enterprises (MSME & SMEs); AgriTech and FinTech and Tourism.  The workshops would investigate opportunities\nfor Lankan businesses to develop themselves into strong sustainable enterprises\nplaying their intended role in contributing to real economic growth in Sri\nLanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final output of the discussion series will be a Roadmap\nsummarizing the problems facing the sector, possible solutions, role of the\npolicy makers and role for private sector and MSME\/SMEs, AgriTech & FinTech\nand Tourism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nRoadmap will be presented to key government officials. The findings unlike many\nforums will not lament on subsidies and need for more protection but will\nexamine the real \u2018pain points\u2019, highlight past successes stories that have overcome\nhurdles even during extreme domestic downturns so that a positive message of\n\u2018can do\u2019 rather than \u2018why cannot do\u2019 will be presented. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pathfinder Foundation (PF) The Pathfinder Foundation (PF) together with VISA Inc are conducting a series of discussions on promoting digitalization and financial inclusion in Sri Lanka. The PF, a non \u2013 partisan research and advocacy think tank is known to play a catalytic role in research and analysis aimed at contributing to economic policy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}