Читать книгу Rural and Microfinance in the Lower Mekong Region - Robert M. Vogel - Страница 5

This study is the product of a team effort. Much of the credit for its material goes to our local collaborators in each country: Dinh Thi Minh Thai in Viet Nam, Somphone Sisenglath in the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), and Hoy Sophea in Cambodia. These colleagues not only provided important insights into the operation of rural and microfinance in their respective countries but also helped secure meetings with key government officials and representatives of domestic and international nongovernment organizations and financial institutions, and provided essential interpretation and translation in these meetings. They also helped gather data through a review of pertinent government documents and records and the conduct of the survey, both in the distribution of the survey instrument and in follow-ups to obtain further information. In addition, we would like to thank Timo Hogenhout for his invaluable insights, information, and updates for the Lao PDR chapter and for his consultation on our behalf with the stakeholders in the Lao DPR to finalize the chapter.

We greatly appreciate the courtesies and assistance provided by government officials and representatives of microfinance institutions, research institutions, mass organizations, and donor agencies whom we met or interviewed and who supplied us with the essential information for the report along with their particular insights into the operation of rural and microfinance in their respective countries. They were generous in the time they made available to us and in the openness and frankness with which they answered our questions. We cannot name all of them here, but our gratitude goes to them. We especially thank the officials of the State Bank of Vietnam, the Bank of the Lao PDR, and the National Bank of Cambodia for their support and particularly for their coordination on behalf of their governments in providing sector stakeholders’ consolidated comments on our draft report.

We benefited from useful comments from three reviewers from the Asian Development Bank (ADB): Betty Wilkinson of the East Asia Department, and Yi Jiang and Michiko Katagami from the Economics and Research Department. The paper was presented at an ADB seminar on 15 January 2010 and we appreciated the comments received from the participants.

Finally, the authors thank Jaseem Ahmed, director, Financial Sector, Public Management and Trade Division of the Southeast Asia Department (SEFM), for the continued support and encouragement he provided. Without his support, this publication would not have been possible. Binh T. Nguyen thanks Mala Hettige, director, Independent Evaluation Division 2 (IED2), for giving him time to finalize this paper after he was transferred from SEFM to IED2.