Queen Máxima of the Netherlands arrived in Pakistan on Monday for a three-day visit as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development.
Senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan and representatives of the embassy of Netherlands received the Queen and a six-member delegation at the Nur Khan Air Base in Punjab.
The Queen chaired a meeting on financial inclusion in Islamabad. She said Pakistan had made progress towards financial inclusion but still more needs to be done. She stressed the need to use technology to enable improvements in this regard.
The meeting was attended by representatives of UN Agencies, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
Queen Máxima will also attend the launch of the Micro Payment Gateway, an initiative of the State Bank of Pakistan aimed at reducing the cost of small payments and boosting digital transactions to benefit people and promote financial inclusion.
The Queen will meet Pakistan President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan, besides holding engagements with a range of stakeholders from the public and private sectors.
As the United Nations Secretary-General’s special advocate for inclusive finance for development, she is actively engaged worldwide in promoting the access of individuals and enterprises to financial services at a reasonable cost, with the aim of improving economic and social development opportunities.