Webinar: Sustained Recovery and Growth of SMEs (online)

The World Alliance of International Financial Centers (WAIFC) and its member network continue to share a strong consensus that sustainability and inclusive growth lie at the core of financial centers of the future, and those small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are crucial to accelerating these efforts. The current global challenges such as climate change, disruption of global supply chains, and high inflation have caused an immense burden on SMEs and entrepreneurs and compounded the complexities already caused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of its broader work on the role of financial centers in supporting global economic recovery, the WAIFC published a report on ’Supporting Ecosystem for Sustained Recovery and Growth of SMEs.’

This webinar will discuss the findings of this report including the important role of financial centers in stimulating innovation, and fostering entrepreneurship to promote the stability and growth of SMEs by creating an environment that provides access to the essential strategic resources – access to finance, access to competence, and access to markets. The webinar will also include recommendations to address the added complexities that SMEs and entrepreneurs face, drawing on approaches through which some of the WAIFC members are addressing these issues in the form of regulatory measures, capacity building, and financing landscape.

Join us in this webinar where leaders of some of the leading financial centers and industry leaders will discuss some of the new financial and regulatory initiatives and best practices as they continue to further develop their efforts to support the recovery and growth of SMEs.

Moderator:

Akshu Campbell-Holt, Managing Director, AIFC Investment Office & Head of Member Relations, WAIFC

Panelists:

Nandini Sukumar, Chief Executive Officer, The World Federation of Exchanges

Jochen Biedermann, Managing Director, WAIFC

Frederic de Laminne, Head of Finance, WAIFC

Mourad Fathallah, Head of Strategy, Casablanca Finance City

Tetsuya Inoue, Head of Policy Research, FinCity Tokyo