Queen Maxima in Italy for the G20 Summit

From 28 to 31 October, Her Majesty Queen Maxima was in Rome to attend the activities of the G20 summit in her role as Special Advocate of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Inclusive Finance for Development and Honorary President of the Global Partnership for Inclusive Finance “Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion” (GPFI) of the G20.
On Friday October 29, the Queen had several bilateral consultations with government representative: she met with Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund; Olaf Scholz, Germany Vice Chancellor; Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of India and representatives from the World Food Programme. The meetings were focused on the promotion of financial inclusion and public good infrastructure for digital financial services, collaboration on financial technology and women’s financial inclusion.
In the evening Queen Maxima attended a summit dinner with Finance & Health Ministers from the G20 meeting. Topic of the dinner were: pandemic preparedness and prevention, solutions to vaccine inequity, global economy and financial inclusion.
On Saturday October 30, the Queen held a speech in the panel titled: “Supporting SMEs and women-owned businesses to build forward better”. At the panel was present Mario Draghi, Italian Prime Minister, as well as other government leaders.
In her speech Queen Maxima stressed the “contribution that SMEs make to our societies and economies, providing millions of families with an income”. The Queen also added the importance to digitization in order to help SMEs “to cope with the growing problem of labor shortages in many countries” and that “SMEs need a range of financial services—payments, equity, short- and long-term debt, savings and insurance—especially for start-ups and firms with large growth prospects”.
Following the panel Queen Maxima had further meetings: she met with Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda and Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore.
In the evening the Queen attended an official dinner hosted by Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale, the presidential palace, on the occasion of the G20.
During her last day in Rome, on Sunday October 31, Queen Maxima met with David Malpass, President of World Bank, and with Marcelo Ebrard, Foreign Secretary of Mexico, to discuss about the importance of financial health, financial inclusion and financial technology.

Queen Máxima @UNSGSA addresses @g20org government leaders on the importance of SMEs in economic recovery during and after the pandemic. Small businesses in developing countries, especially female entrepreneurs, have been hit hard by #COVID19. https://t.co/uR891xgSsV #G20 pic.twitter.com/CjAfH0YAoE

— Koninklijk Huis (@koninklijkhuis) October 31, 2021

#UNSGSA Queen Máxima held a series of meetings today to promote #financialinclusion at the #G20Summit, including w/ @IMFnews @KGeorgieva, Germany Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz, @FinMinIndia Nirmala Sitharaman, @WFP & more. https://t.co/xAkOebHrqG #G20Italy pic.twitter.com/QbrxoWVwNw

— UN SG's Special Advocate Queen Máxima (@UNSGSA) October 29, 2021

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Tagged Italy, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.