Expertise and initiatives to improve financial access for low-income people in the Southeast Asian region were discussed at an ASEAN workshop held in Myanmar’s capital city of Nay Pyi Taw on October 29 – 30.
 
Addressing the event, Myanmar’s Finance Minister U Win Shein said as an outcome of the 18 th ASEAN Finance Ministers Meeting 2014, the function aims at finding effective measures to extend financial services to people with no access to banking services.

The minister emphasised the importance of financial access to poverty alleviation, noting that 70 percent of the poor in the world living in rural areas are excluded from financial systems. In addition, 59 percent of the world's 2.5 billion adults without access to formal financial system are residents in East and Southeast Asia.

The conference’s participants, including experts, policy-makers and officials from ASEAN state members and the United Nation, focused their discussions on the issues of allocating start-up capital for the poor and boosting women’s role in the field of finance.-VNA