The 3^rd Pacific Islands Regional Initiative (PIRI) Leaders Roundtable is set to kick off on 31 May to 1 June 2017 at the Gazelle International Hotel, Kokopo, in the East New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea. Under the overarching theme, “Digital Financial Services in the face of De-Risking” members from the seven island Pacific nations which include Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Timor-Leste and Vanuatu will meet to continue the dialogue aimed at identifying challenges and opportunities for financial inclusion, and to advance the work on financial inclusion policies in the Pacific.

Hosted by Bank of Papua New Guinea, more than 50 participants from member institutions, partners, international experts, and stakeholders will converge at the capital of East New Britain. For the first time, the Central Bank of Seychelles will be attending this roundtable and the high-level delegation is being led by the Second Deputy Governor Ms. Jenifer Sullivan as part of the small islands states initiatives of the AFI network.

The leader’s roundtable will focus deliberations around policy topics on Digital Financial Services (DFS), De-risking in the Pacific, Climate Change and Financial Inclusion, the challenges and lessons learnt from implementation of National Financial Inclusion Strategies, Women Empowerment in the Pacific and the Denarau Action plan, and the role of Technology in enhancing MSMEs access in the Pacific.

Ahead of the leader’s roundtable, the Experts Group for Financial Inclusion Policy (EGFIP), the technical and implementing arm of PIRI will meet on the 30 May 2017 to take stock and discuss the implementation deliverables of the initiative.

The Honorable Senior statesman and former Prime Minister of PNG, Sir Rabbie Namaliu will deliver the keynote address for this high level gathering.