Queen Máxima to attend World Economic Forum in Davos
Her Majesty Queen Máxima will attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos from Tuesday evening 22 January to Thursday 24 January, in her capacity as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development.
Queen Máxima will hold bilateral talks with government representatives from various countries, officials from central banks and representatives of fintech organisations and businesses. The main topic of discussion will be improving access to financial services. She will also attend several plenary sessions including the Financial Inclusion: Minding the gap breakfast meeting on Wednesday 23 January. On the morning of Thursday 24 January she will attend the meeting of the Financial and Monetary Systems Stewardship Board, of which she became a member in 2016 at the invitation of the WEF.
On Wednesday morning Queen Máxima will also meet with the CEO Partnership for Inclusion. This informal partnership brings together 10 international businesses from various sectors (Ant Financial, AXA, Bharti Airtel, Mastercard, PayPal, PepsiCo, Rabobank, Santander Bank, Telenor, Unilever). Its aim is to exchange knowledge and experience and step up cooperation in the area of inclusive finance. The CEOs held their first meeting at the last World Economic Forum in January 2018, at Queen Máxima’s invitation.
The meeting will be followed by an open panel discussion on private-private partnerships for financial inclusion. Queen Máxima will host this event, together with the CEO Partnership. The discussion will focus on multinationals’ role in making financial services more accessible and how this can help expand their market potential. Over the past 10 years more than 1.2 billion adults have gained access to financial services, but 1.7 billion people still have to do without (Global Findex 2018). According to the World Bank Group and other experts this limits their economic development.
Queen Máxima has been Special Advocate to the UN Secretary-General since 2009. In this role she works to make financial services accessible to all, including those from low-income groups and small and medium-sized enterprises, with the aim of improving their economic and social development opportunities. As a member of the Stewardship Board of the WEF System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Financial and Monetary Systems she advocates financial inclusion. Other experts in this field include representatives of governments, central banks and private institutions.
The World Economic Forum is an annual international meeting attended by around 2,000 politicians and representatives of businesses, international organisations and civil society organisations, as well as academics and journalists. This year’s theme is ‘Globalization 4.0: Shaping a Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution’.
