Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma (left) with Chairman and Managing Director of the Central Bank of India, Srinivasan Sridhar.
Helping youth owned and operated businesses is focus of Commonwealth partnership with Central Bank of India
6 July 2010
The Bank’s Chairman calls on the Secretary-General in London
A technical adviser funded by the Central Bank of India (CBI) will be seconded to the Commonwealth Secretariat by October 2010 to work on projects which build the capacity of youth owned and operated businesses.
At a meeting on 1 July, the CBI Chairman and Managing Director, Srinivasan Sridhar, briefed Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma on this placement as they discussed the Secretariat-CBI joint work on financing youth enterprises.
For this joint initiative, the CBI will offer concessional loan rates to youth for enterprise development activities. The Secretariat will then complement the Central Bank’s funding by providing technical assistance to ensure entrepreneurs develop sufficient capacity in running sustainable businesses.
Central Bank of India
The CBI is one of India’s largest government-owned commercial banks. CBI, which has an annual balance sheet of US$60 billion, has been focusing on financing the development of micro, small and medium enterprises and provides rural enterprises with growth opportunities through innovative financing mechanisms.
The unique partnership between the Secretariat and the CBI will lead to what Mr Sridhar calls the “multiplier effect,” where young entrepreneurs set up successful businesses, which in turn leads to more job opportunities and eventually socio-economic development throughout a region.
Improving small business competativeness
They also spoke about the series of programmes, organised by the Secretariat in collaboration with CBI, which help improve the competitiveness of small businesses across the Commonwealth.
Mr Sridhar said: “I was pleased to meet with Secretary-General Sharma and apprise him of the many outcomes from what has been a successfully crafted partnership between our organisations over the last eighteen months.”
These programmes, of which there have been eleven since 2004, have exposed businessmen and women from 49 countries to a range of success stories by inviting renowned entrepreneurs to share their first-hand experiences as well as organising field visits to a number of successful enterprises and regions. The next programme will be held in Chandigarh during February 2011.
The Secretary-General thanked Mr Sridhar for his outstanding support that has ensured a strengthened partnership between the Secretariat and CBI.
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