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Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, February 1, 2007
- IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, has been requested by the Turkmenistan government and private sector to assist in developing micro-finance programs in the country. As a first step, IFC organized a tour by Turkmen bankers to study IFC successful micro-finance operations in the Kyrgyz Republic.
Participants in the study tour included Myrat Saparov, Head of the Credit Department of Turkmenistan’s Central Bank; Myratniyaz Berdiyev, Head of the Central Bank’s State Loan Division; and Eyeberdy Atayev, Head of International Activity Management of the Senagat Bank. The tour, which ran from from January 20 to 26, included a visit to Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital.
The group had a series of meetings with representatives of the Kyrgyz financial sector, including representatives of the country’s National Bank, its Agricultural Finance Corporation, and several nongovernmental organizations and multilateral financial institutions. They also met with IPC, which manages the Micro/SME Finance Program in the Kyrgyz Republic.
“The meetings were extremely beneficial to us. They have given us some models of best practice as well as shown some of the pitfalls to avoid when implementing our own microfinance program. We were also able to observe practical applications of lending technologies, some of which already exist in Turkmenistan. We now have more ideas on how to use them to benefit our local enterprises,” said Myrat Saparov of the Central Bank of Turkmenistan.
Gorton de Mond, IFC’s Regional Representative for Central Asia, said, “There are many valuable lessons of experience in microcredit development that the Kyrgyz Republic can share with Turkmenistan. Like their counterparts in Turkmenistan today, microentrepreneurs in the Kyrgyz Republic – many of them in rural areas – previously had little or no access to finance. With support from IFC and other organizations, this has greatly changed, and there are now more income opportunities for thousands of households. This has helped reduce poverty in rural areas, and we believe a similar impact can be achieved in Turkmenistan.”
Turkmenistan became a member of IFC in 1997, and since then IFC has provided support through both financial products and advisory services. The study tour of Turkmen bankers to the Kyrgyz Republic is an important first step in developing microfinance in the country.
About IFC
IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, promotes open and competitive markets in developing countries. IFC supports sustainable private sector companies and other partners in generating productive jobs and delivering basic services, so that people have opportunities to escape poverty and improve their lives. Through FY06, IFC Financial Products has committed more than $56 billion in funding for private sector investments and mobilized an additional $25 billion in syndications for 3,531 companies in 140 developing countries. IFC Advisory Services and donor partners have provided more than $1 billion in program support to build small enterprises, to accelerate private participation in infrastructure, to improve the business enabling environment, to increase access to finance, and to strengthen environmental and social sustainability. For more information, please visit
www.ifc.org.
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