Ranjith Kodituwakku, CEO and General Manager, People’s Bank, was invited to participate as a panelist at the ‘SUFIP 2022: Sustainable Finance in the Indo Pacific’ event in France co-organized by Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the EXIM Bank of India. The event gathered the European and Indo-Pacific development banks on the side-lines of the European Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum and comprised opening and closing sessions and four panels based on broad thematic areas.
Ranjith Kodituwakku was a panelist for the fourth panel, ‘Financing Social Resilience in the Post-Pandemic Indo-Pacific: improving public health, nutrition, and agriculture’. The other three panels discussed key areas, including ‘Sustainable Agenda in the Indo-Pacific: Connectivity and Quality Infrastructures’, ‘From Climate Agreement to Climate Action: Financing Decarbonisation, Resilience and Biodiversity,’ and ‘Accelerating the Energy Transition: Turning Commitment into Reality’. The Indo-Pacific region will be the engine of global growth and recovery in the post-pandemic era. However, countries face multiple challenges, especially in the post-pandemic economic revival. Both India and France share the view that a new, decentralized, robust, and inclusive economic perspective needs to be built in the Indo-Pacific that prioritizes the economic aspirations of its residents. This event brought stakeholders from public financial institutions and development banks to chart out mechanisms for understanding and cooperation on sustainable modernization in the Indo-Pacific region. It presented several institutions with the opportunity to highlight their commitment towards key actions in priority areas, including climate and energy transition, digital connectivity, health, biodiversity, and the blue economy.
Ranjith Kodituwakku, CEO and GM, People’s Bank stated, “It gives me great pride to represent People’s Bank and Sri Lanka at such a prestigious regional event that brought together some of the most knowledgeable and experienced individuals in Sustainable Finance on to one stage. With the Indo-Pacific region facing several hurdles in today’s pandemic-hit world, it is important that countries and their respective key institutions work closely to develop solutions to the region’s pressing problems across different areas. This event certainly was a timely one as it brought together the institutions that channel development finance to determine how they can together catalyze progress in sectors such as climate finance, renewable energy, and health.”
