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Saturday, September 6, 2014
Launching ACE-BK for Women Empowerment Launching ACE-BK for Women Empowerment
By Himan shamsedin @ 2:26 PM :: 1486 Views
 
The fourth APRACA Center of Excellence focusing on Women Empowerment issues was officially launched in Bank Keshavarzi Headquarters on August 30, 2014 in a ceremony attended by BK managing director, board members and executive directors; as well as representatives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, President Office, UN agencies, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Welfare, Environment Organization, ...
 


 
During the ceremony, introduced by Dr. Arghavan Farzin Motamed, Head of ACE – BK for Women Empowering, Dr. Talebi, BK Chairman and CEO; Dr. Nedjadi, the representative of Vice- President in Women Affairs; Ambassador Bizmark, Director General for Multilateral Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Gari Lewis,  Resident Representative of the United Nations; Chamnong Siriwongyotha, APRACA Secretary General; Professor Bawden from Sidney University; Benedicto Bayaua, Bank Keshavarzi Consultant made speeches on importance of women empowerment issues and the necessity to exchange knowledge and experience among APRACA members and those organizations involved with the issues.
 
In his opening statements, Dr. Talebi, Chairman and CEO of BK, stressing on the important role of APRACA with more than 60 members from 23 countries, underlined creation of special services for women aimed at empowering and exchanging best practices as the most important function of the centre. He also emphasized on the necessity to promote the national and international of Bank Keshavarzi and APRACA.
 

Dr. Talebi, Bank Keshavarzi Chairman and CEO
 
He then added that Iran can play a significant role in realization of the center's objectives given the civilized approach towards women adopted in the country. Dr. Talebi ended his opening remarks with focusing on special care given by the country's authorities to issues such as engagement of women in specialized social and economic positions and promotion of their expertise and professional levels. He hoped that Iran’s best practices in women’s empowerment can be shared with the region and the rest of the world.
 
The UNDP Resident Representative in Iran, Mr. Gary Lewis also addressed the opening of the Centre referring to women's improved position in Iran in terms of HDI indexes, life expectancy at birth, years of schooling, completion of secondary education and the higher number of women entering universities. He also underlined some unidentified and unknown challenges women face in Iran and the necessity to recognize such challenges.
 

Gary Lewis, (UNDP Resident Representative in Iran
 
Secretary General of Asia-Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (APRACA), Chamnong Siriwongyotha, was another keynote speaker of the ceremony. According to APRACA SG, the Asian region is a dynamic and emerging economy which attracts trade and investment from various investors across the globe and with approximately 4.3 billion people or 60% of the world population, Asia is the biggest market for almost all kinds of products and service. He also believes that women empowerment is one of the key successes in development at all levels.
 

Chamnong Siriwongyotha, APRACA Secretary General
 
"There are many interesting cases in APRACA countries, for instance Iran, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand, which must be shared and studied through APRACA centers of excellent", added Mr. Siriwongyotha.
 
ACE-BK on Women Empowerment, established following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Bank Keshavarzi (BK) and APRACA, and in close collaboration with UNDP Iran through its joint project on Green Banking, is the fourth ACE after ACE Indonesia on Islamic Banking, NABARD ACE on Linkage Banking, and Indonesia Rakyat ACE on Rtail Banking, aimed at providing the groundwork for women economic excellence in Iran agricultural sector and Asian-pacific region.
 

The Center undertakes activities such as to designate and conduct of programs, training courses and visit studies related to women economic empowerment; hold seminars on women economic empowerment; designate and conduct regional studies in agricultural sector by the goal of women economic empowerment; designate some special banking and financial services for women and improving the present special services for women; offer some expertise and technical services to other members of APRACA; identify international –regional projects by the goal of women economic empowerment; publish books, brochures,…
 
The participants signed the logo of ACE-BK on Women Empowerment at the end of the ceremony.

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