ISLAMABAD: Queen Maxima of the Netherlands arrived here on Monday on a two-day visit as a United Nations special representative.

She was received at the Nur Khan Air Base by senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and representatives of the Netherlands Embassy. Queen Maxima is visiting Pakistan in her capacity as the UN secretary general’s special advocate for inclusive finance for development.

During the visit, Queen Maxima will call on President Dr Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan, besides holding meetings with a range of stakeholders from public and private sectors. She will also attend the launch of Micro Payment Gateway, an initiative of the State Bank of Pakistan aimed at reducing the costs of small payments and boosting digital transactions to benefit people and promote financial inclusion.

PM to launch Ehsaas programme today in presence of Queen Maxima

Queen Maxima as UN secretary general’s special advocate since 2009 has been actively engaged worldwide in promoting access of individuals and enterprises to financial services at a reasonable cost, with the aim of creating economic and social

development opportunities. She earlier visited Pakistan in February 2016.

Ehsaas launching

Prime Minister Khan will launch on Tuesday (today) the much-anticipated Ehsaas programme in the presence of Queen Maxima, adds Our Staff Reporter.

Ehsaas — a financial inclusion strategy programme — was launched earlier this year. Currently, only one in five people in Pakistan has access to basic financial tools such as bank accounts, access to credit or electronic payments.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar said that with the access to a broad range of financial tools — savings, credit, insurance, payments, etc — families can move out of poverty, small businesses can expand, farmers can thrive and societies and economies can grow stronger and more inclusive. The Ehsaas financial inclusion strategy drives access to financial services for the poorest and marginalised.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2019