Morocco will host a high-level policy forum, entitled "New Venture Finance in the Arab World," on 20th and 21st November, 2017.

The two-day event is being jointly organised by the Moroccan Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund, the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The conference will bring together high-level government authorities, including representatives from ministries of finance, industry, labour and social affairs, central banks, financial market authorities, senior staff from regional and international financial institutions, researchers, and private sector practitioners.

Under the theme, "Accelerating Arab Start-ups," the forum aims to explore innovative approaches to support entrepreneurial financing in the Arab world. It will feature a mix of panels, discussions and workshops focusing on regulatory and policy innovations to create an improved climate for investments in start-ups. Moreover, it will offer an exclusive networking opportunity for representatives from central banks and financial regulatory authorities, ministries of finance and key actors from the private sector.

The conference will also highlight the potential impact of access to finance by start-ups, as well as in fostering innovation, competition, economic growth and job creation, and in encouraging financial regulators, policy-makers, supervisors and decision-makers to provide financing to young entrepreneurs and women in the Arab world. It will further develop a common understanding of the role that financial regulators and the private sector can play in creating and strengthening new financing schemes for start-ups. It will also facilitate knowledge exchanges and peer-to-peer learning on how to develop suitable innovative financial inclusion policies and strategies that help close the financing gap for start-ups.

It is expected that the conference will develop appropriate recommendations at the domestic and regional levels that will contribute to enhancing financing for start-ups in Arab countries. These recommendations will be translated thereafter into programme activities and technical assistance to be provided to Arab countries under the newly established Financial Inclusion in the Arab Region Initiative, FIARI.