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"In China, people try not to think about the countryside at all. When they do, it is not of a rural idyll, but a grim, dirty place where people are poor and life is harsh. In Britain the countryside is somewhere to escape to. In China it is somewhere to escape from.” I read these...
What does the Future Hold for Rural Chinese Borrowers?News
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and CGAP (the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), in collaboration with Visa International today begin a global conference called Next Generation Access to Finance: Gaining Scale and Reducing Costs with Technology and Credit Scoring. The conference will highlight technologies used by pioneering organizations in the financial services industry, including microfinance organizations, to reduce costs and reach new customers. WASHINGTON, D.C. - September 17,...
Global Business Leaders Explore Impact of Technology and CreditNews
That suggestion has been criticised on the ground that the market is not geared to cater to the poor. Many people oppose the market mechanism even though poverty is generally less in market economies than in government-controlled socialist ones. Here is an issue that deserves further discussion. Basically, there are two ways of giving the poor what they need at a price they can afford. One - the ideal one - is to convert that need into a public good. The second method is to add frills...
Making Goods Affordable for PoorNews
More than 50 percent of all Latin Americans, 78 percent of Africans (including South Africa), 65 percent of Asians?excluding those who work in agriculture?work in these gray industries. WASHINGTON?More than 50 percent of all Latin Americans, 78 percent of Africans (including South Africa), 65 percent of Asians?excluding those who work in agriculture?work in these gray industries. Underground industries generally refer to businesses which operate outside a country’s laws by n...
Underground Industries Flourish WorldwideBlog Post
The latest issue of one of my favorite journals - Stanford Social Innovation Review - is out; they only have 4 issues a year, so I get really excited when the new issue comes out. There are a couple of interesting articles in the Fall 2007 issue addressing both the non-profit and the for-profit...
Fall 2007 Issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review is OutNews
Now 47, Jos? Antonio Reyes has worked for years as a builder in his native El Salvador and has never once thought about opening a bank account. On the face of it, he and his wife Edith Portales seem like some of the most unlikely people to have their lives transformed by innovations in trans-national finance. The couple live in a cramped and airless house in Soyapango, near the country’s capital, San Salvador, which they share with their son Fernando and their nephew Gerardo Alfar...
Building FuturesNews
A typical bank will do its very best to retain customers who are relatively mature and reliable. Whenever it deals with these favoured clients, it will try to offer a personalised service, devise innovative products and keep rival lenders away. The World Bank is certainly not a typical bank, but in this respect it follows the norm. It relishes dealing with its ?best? customers: the middle-income countries (MICs), a group whose GDP per head typically ranges from about $1,000 to $6,0...
The World Bank, founded to fight poverty, is searching for the right role in places that need its heNews
High levies on mobile phones, hiked to 10 percent from 2.5 percent, could put a dampener on telecom expansion in Sri Lanka, currently growing at a rate of over 15 percent. The Lankan telecom sector is set to enter more exciting times with Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel, an Indian company, being awarded licences to provide 2G and 3G mobile services in the country. Airtel plans to invest $200 million in Sri Lanka over the next five years. Industry analysts forecast a thinning of prof...
High Levies May Dampen Mobile Growth in Sri Lanka
