##less banking providers achievements in the branchless banking services have already put pakistan at the global centre stage of financial inclusion and innovation. the world bank ’ s consultative group to assist the poor ( cgap ), in one of its studies has also recognized pakistan as one of the fastest growing branchless banking markets in the world, and a laboratory of innovation. we hope that with the entry of new players and scaling - up of the existing institutions the present growth momentum will build up strongly and progressively. before i close, i would like to emphasize on our broader goal i. e. to provide inclusive financial services to poor and low income groups. i firmly believe that microfinance and branchless banking are complementary to each other, and together they will bring the advantages of inclusiveness, convenience, ubiquity, and efficiency. pakistan offers best regulatory framework and industry infrastructure for microfinance, and i hope that our mfbs will take advantage of such a favorable market environment by investing in innovative technologies and products to grow their businesses and expand access to financial services in pakistan. once again, i would like to congratulate waseela microfinance bank limited and mobilink. i wish you every success, assure you of our support, and look forward to positive outcomes of this commercial launch and i hope today ’ s commercial launch of waseela and its branchless banking will go a long way in tackling financial exclusion in pakistan. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches

based outcomes. concurrently, we can start broaching the idea of saarcfinance as an economic alliance to meet the challenges of the future. 16. let me now turn my attention to the long term. to set a future direction and priorities for saarcfinance, currently we are in the process of developing a roadmap for the network. in this context, we have identified five areas of regional cooperation and integration, which include : ( i ) reducing the transaction cost of cross - border remittances in the saarc region ; ( ii ) facilitating the cross - border trade in the region ; ( iii ) capacity building programmes for our staff ; ( iv ) the creation of saarcfinance statistical database ; and ( v ) undertaking of collaborative research studies. out of the five areas, the first two are ambitious programs, the next one is about the capacity building of the officials of members, and the work on other two projects is already going on. with your support, we believe that these five areas of cooperation will initially form the roadmap for saarcfinance and would help set a clear direction and priorities for our future cooperation. bis central bankers ’ speeches 17. all the above identified areas are important. however, i would like to highlight the role of central banks in facilitating the cross - border trade. i believe that the regional central banks have the ability to form cohesive policies towards gearing up cooperation in banking and finance with a view to facilitate cross border trade and investments. similarly, we further intend to integrate and improve our payments and settlement system. among others, the cooperation on this specific area would help promote bilateral and regional trade besides strengthening financial infrastructure in the region. 18. before i make my concluding remarks, i would like to record one proposal. “ the saarc secretary general or his representative is invited for participation in regional group meting only. it will be appropriate to invite saarc secretary general or his representative into saarcfinance meetings to ensure effective liaison with all saarc bodies ”. second is a request to honourable finance minister of maldives. for the last one a half years maldives monetary authority has not been representing our meetings or events. in this context, i would request honourable finance minister of maldives to look into this issue and facilitate us with mmas participation in our various meetings / events in future. honourable chairman, 19. let me conclude by saying that the saarcfinance network