An International Conference titled the "Challenge of Sustainable Outreach" will be held at the Colombo Hilton from January 27-29.

The conference organized by the GTZ together with APRACA (the Asia Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association) will be hosted by the People’s Bank.

GTZ/RBIP Team Leader Amin Hofman said that objective of the conference is to draw attention to the lack of financial services in rural areas and to promote the role public banks could play in addressing this issue.

To achieve this, we will be using some examples of Asian public banks - where outreach is relatively high - in order to develop ideas as to how this outreach can be further improved while achieving financial sustainability.

Governor, Central Bank, A. S. Jayawardena will deliver the keynote speech.