From Monday 30 March to Wednesday 1 April 2015 Her Majesty Queen Máxima will visit Myanmar as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development.

Queen Máxima is visiting Myanmar at the invitation of its government. The recently adopted Financial Inclusion Roadmap sets out how the finance and economics ministries, the central bank and the Financial Regulation Department intend to provide the country’s inhabitants with access to safe and affordable financial services. The UN believes that the country has great potential for further economic development. Good access to bank and savings accounts, insurance and pensions is essential in this regard.

The visit will begin on Monday 30 March in Yangon, where Queen Máxima will hold talks with representatives of banks, microfinance institutions and telecom providers. It is important for these organisations to work together if more people are to make use of financial services. Mobile banking is a key tool for obtaining access to financial services (see Queen Máxima’s speech to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 2 March 2015).

On Tuesday 31 March Queen Máxima will deliver a speech at the University of Yangon on the importance of access to financial services. She will also visit local entrepreneurs near Yangon who have been able to expand their businesses with the help of small loans.

On Wednesday 1 April Queen Máxima will attend the launch of the Financial Inclusion Roadmap in the capital Nay Pyi Taw. She will also meet with representatives of Myanmar’s government, central bank and parliament, among others, to discuss the importance of access to financial services for the development of the country’s people.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Queen Máxima as his Special Advocate in September 2009. In this capacity, she advises him on access to financial services and she also promotes access to financial services for people all over the world. This contributes to the development of low-income groups and small and medium-sized enterprises in particular. Since June 2011 Queen Máxima has been Honorary Chair of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI).