By Thierry Snders, CEO of MEKAR -

Despite the cold, I was warmly welcomed by Anna Klabunde from the Federal Ministry of Finance and Matt Gamser from IFC and founder of the SME Finance Forum. They were not alone. There were 100 delegates from the 20 largest economies. Central bankers, secretaries of state, directors of development finance institutions, and there were 4 FinTech entrepreneurs from Uganda, Denmark, South Africa and myself as only representative from Indonesia.

This summer the G20 summit will be held with the top brass like Prime Ministers and Presidents like Merkel, Xi Jinping, Modi, Trump and their friends or enemies. Meanwhile, in advance of the summit, the ministries of finance and development cooperation are sharpening their priorities on SME Finance.

In summary, it is clear that SME Finance is an important topic. But it nealry fell off the standard G20 summit agenda had it not been for the German delegation and the lobbying of Queen Maxima of the Netherlands in 2009.