Monday, January 26, 2009

REMINDER: "Getting Finance in South Asia 2009" discussed on January 27, 2009 at 12:00 PM

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CHAIR/OPENING REMARKS
Ernesto May
Sector Director, SASPF, World Bank
Mr. May is the Director for Poverty Reduction and Economic
Management, Finance and Private Sector Development in the South Asia
Region (SASPF) of the World Bank. He is responsible for providing
strategic direction for the Bank?s research and policy advice to
member countries in South Asia in the areas of poverty reduction,
economic policy, governance, public sector reform, finance and
private sector development. Previously, Mr. May held this same
position in the Latin America and Caribbean Region of the World Bank
from July 2000 until September 2007. Mr. May also served in
several other positions, including Principal Economist and Country
Team Leader for Colombia, and Lead Economist for Bolivia, Paraguay
and Peru.

PRESENTING AUTHORS
Kiatchai Sophastienphong
Senior Financial Sector Specialist, SASFP, World Bank
Mr. Sophastienphong is Senior Financial Sector Specialist, Poverty
Reduction, Economic Management, Finance and Private Sector
Development at the World Bank, South Asia Region (SASPF). Recently,
he led the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) update mission
to Sri Lanka; helped to design and implement restructuring and bank
privatization programs in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan; and
guided the dialogue on financial sector issues in several client
countries at both the policy and technical levels. He has designed
the overall financial sector strategies for these countries and
developed a program to implement these strategies. Prior to joining
the Bank, he held senior executive positions at the Bank of Thailand
(the central bank) and two private commercial banks in Thailand.

Anoma Kulathunga
Consultant, SASFP, World Bank
Ms. Kulathunga is a consultant at the World Bank. She is an
associate member of the Chartered Institute of Management
Accountants, U.K. In addition to Getting Finance in South Asia 2009,
she recently co-authored a chapter in Islamic Finance: The
Regulatory Challenge, (John Wiley & Sons). Her research interests
include financial sector development, Islamic banking, worker
remittances, and international banking. She is currently reading for
a PhD in International Finance/Development Economics at The George
Washington University in Washington DC.

DISCUSSANTS
Consolate Rusagara
Director, FPDFS, World Bank
Ms. Rusagara is the Director Financial Systems in the Financial and
Private Sector Development Vice Presidency of the World Bank Group
(FPDFS). Prior to this, she spent six years as a Deputy Governor of
the Central Bank of Rwanda, where she took a lead role in the design
of the financial sector development program. She represented Rwanda
on the Steering Committee of the IMF?s East African Regional
Technical Assistance Centre since his inception in 2002. She
started her twenty four year banking career in commercial banking
and was appointed the Deputy CEO of Bank of Kigali in 1997, where
she managed the post-genocide reconstruction of the bank.

Anjali Kumar
Lead Economist, IEGCG, World Bank
Ms. Kumar is an Adviser in the Financial and Private Sector Vice
Presidency, where she is currently leading a unit engaged in
building world wide indicators on financial access. Her previous
responsibilities included Lead Financial Economist, Latin American
region and Principal Economist, East Asian region. Her prior
country experience span the European region, the Middle East, South
Asia and Africa. She has been a consultant to the Ministry of
Industry Government of India, and held a Fellowship at the Institute
of Economic Growth in Delhi.

CLOSING REMARKS
Simon C. Bell
Sector Manager, SASFP, World Bank
Mr. Bell is currently Sector Manager in the Finance and Private
Sector unit (FSD and PSD) of the South Asia region within the World
Bank. He has been working in the South Asia region on private
sector and financial sector issues for almost a decade ? half of
this time as manager. Prior to working in South Asia, he worked in
the Africa region of the World Bank for eight years on similar FSD
and PSD issues.

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