The WFDFI, represented by its Chairman, Mr. Nihal Fonseka and its Secretary General, Mr. Octavio B. Peralta, was well-received by an audience composed of World Bank staffers, private sector development executives, and academics during the “Financial and Private Sector Development (FPD) Forum 2011” held on April 4-5, 2011 in Washington, D.C. The event was organized and hosted by the Financial and Private Sector Development Vice President of the World Bank.

The Forum is the biggest annual event for World Bank Group staff and clients to network and discuss the latest challenges in financial sector and private sector development. The theme of this year’s Forum was ‘Building Competitiveness’. The Forum focused on the many paths being followed around the world: competitiveness strategies, innovation policies, industrial policy, policies to promote micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) growth, and, in the context of climate change, strategies for green growth. These important issues are playing out now in most countries, across Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The well-attended forum drew a total of 750 participants from many countries.

Mr. Fonseka and Mr. Peralta were together in Session 8 of the programme entitled, “Development Banks: Which Models Work in Emerging Market Economies?” The session notes that in the past five years, development banks (DBs) around the world have expanded and become increasingly important. The session covered such issues as: what are the main factors driving the expansion of DBs? is this a temporary or a long-term trend? to what extent is this trend undermining the role of private financial institutions? have DBs adopted new practices to prevent the mistakes and failures of the past? is the corporate governance framework of DBs sufficiently robust to prevent poor performance? what are the challenges faced by DBs?

More details on the Forum can be found in this link: http://rru.worldbank.org/FPDForum/ and http://rru.worldbank.org/fpdforum/workshops-2011.aspx for the video coverage of the sessions.