Bureau Partner Central Bank of Madagascar Lead Advisor Vector Scorecard (VSC) Country Partner EVOLUTIS Projects Development PRESS RELEASE (EMBARGOED UNTIL TUESDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2014) Transforming Madagascar Banking System with Singapore s Expertise World s 4th Largest Island partners with VSC for a 5-Year MoU December 10, Singapore Vector Scorecard (VSC) Global and the Central Bank of Madagascar officiates a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a 5-year collaboration to establish a Financial Bureau @Madagascar platform. It aims to assess gaps in Madagascar s banking system and help its companies gain better access to finance. The Financial Bureau will serve as an integrated platform that provides strategic insights on 4 segments of the business community, comprising corporates, SMEs, Micro-Small Enterprises and informal businesses. Signed between the Governor of the Central Bank, Mr Alain Rasolofondraibe and the CEO of VSC, Mr. M Nazri, both parties hope that this synergistic collaboration will help to further strengthen Singapore-Madagascar bilateral relations. This MoU is signed in conjunction with 3 other cooperation agreements with the Economic Development Board of Madagascar (EDBM), Ministry of Industry, Private-Sector Development, & Small & Medium Business, and Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI). Since the economic slump in 2009, Madagascar s growth has only been picking up modestly over the past 4 years to 2.6% in 2013. But 2014 may be a year of change. Backed by a new political climate with President Hery Rajaonarimampianina, the former finance minister, and Madagascar s rich assets in extractive industries and agro-industry, international donor agencies and investors are regaining their confidence in the country. Financing will be a crucial driving force for a sustainable economy, especially in raising funds and allocating to the right companies or project. Currently ranked 180 out of 183 economies for Getting Credit in World Bank s Doing Business 2014 report, Madagascar faces a pressing need in areas such as increasing the depth of credit information, public registry coverage and private bureau coverage. Ms. Alaxys Liu, Regional Director for Marketing and Business Development at VSC, explains the strategic benefits of the Financial Bureau on Madagascar s economic and SME development. The signing of the MoU marks a definitive step towards our commitment to share our technical expertise in big data and analytics to strengthen the banking system in Madagascar, she says.
The Bureau is an integrated platform that provides multidimensional insights on a company s business and financial profile for various types of stakeholders, she elaborates. Fundamentally, it focuses on identifying existing gaps in the balance sheets of each type of business corporates, SMEs, Micro-Small Enterprises and informal businesses for the purpose of increasing their bankability and investibility. While companies can use this as a selfassessment tool, banks can also rely on it to make informed lending decisions and the Central Bank can adopt it to detect "red flags" or emerging risks associated with each SME or an industry cluster for policy purposes. "The Financial Bureau designed and developed by VSC offers a unique value proposition unlike any traditional credit bureau. Instead of just providing credit information on a firm s or individual's creditworthiness, it provides a strong emphasis on capacity building and rehabilitation of weak performers, Mr. M Nazri, Group CEO of VSC, describes the mechanism of the Financial Bureau. The Bureau adopts a positive scoring approach through predictive and prescriptive analytics and highlight companies or projects that have good attributes. Those with weak or negative scores are managed within a section of the Bureau for credit repairing process. In this way, good companies and projects get rewarded with the investments and business opportunities. Meanwhile, those that are weak will get all the help they need through capacity building programmes offered by the Bureau. Powered by our own Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven system, the VSC Financial Bureau is a proven model to work especially for developing economies where there is limited information, Nazri concludes. VSC s local partner in Madagascar, EVOLUTIS Projects Development, expresses its full support for the Financial Bureau to have a positive impact on Madagascar s banking system and private sector development. Mr. Thierry Rakotoarison, Managing Director of Evolutis, comments that the establishment of the Financial Bureau will act as a spring board for good SME to access the right financing and assistance to become key drivers of the economy. This will be a good start to position Madagascar as a progressive economy with a regulated and resilient banking system to attract more foreign investments. After the MoU signing, both parties will be looking at the implementation mechanism of the collaboration. The Financial Bureau targets to be set up in the first half of 2015, and majority of the efforts will be channeled to getting support from the Government, international donor agencies as well as the banking and SME ecosystem in Madagascar. Within the 5-year period of the MoU, the Financial Bureau is expected to bring about a more friendly business environment to support SME growth in Madagascar. A more vibrant SME landscape with strong banking and credit system will attract more foreign investments and accelerate Madagascar s economic growth and ranking in international standards. For further enquiries, please contact: Vector Scorecard Global Alaxys Liu Regional Director, Marketing & Business Development T: 65 6534 8047 Email: alaxys@vsapac.com Website: www.vsc.com.sg
APPENDIX 1 PICTURES OF THE MOU-SIGNING CEREMONY MOU Signing Ceremony - 5-Year Collaboration to Establish a Financial Bureau @Madagascar Between Mr Alain Rasolofondraibe, Governor of Central Bank, and Mr. M Nazri, CEO of VSC Antananarivo, Madagascar 10 th December 2014
APPENDIX 2 COMPANY PROFILE VECTOR SCORECARD (VSC) GLOBAL Established since 2006, VSC s focus is to formulate and implement sound economic policies using its proprietary scorecards and analytical tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) platform. Serving public, private and non-governmental organizations (NGO) worldwide, VSC helps to enhance social and commercial returns through identification, measurement and resolution of complex variables. These are achieved using objective and intuitive methods through VSC's comprehensive array of analytical scorecards in the areas of: Financial, Investments and Risk (FIR) Socioeconomics (SEC) Shariah banking, Finance and Education (SFE) Human Capital Management (HCM) International Trade and Partnerships (ITP) VSC is an investee company of SPRING SEEDS Capital Pte Ltd, a wholly owned investment subsidiary of SPRING Singapore, an agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry. VSC carries out its international projects via its country entities which function as its project management team in North Asia, South Asia, ASEAN, Middle East as well as Non-Asia. VSC track record includes: Vision Conducted more than 10 technical assistance programs for Ministry for Foreign Affairs across 150 ministries in 50 developing nations since 2011 covering areas such as: Socioeconomics: education, healthcare, economic sustainability for low income families, public-private partnerships, and many more. Appointed by Spring Singapore to independently review the effectiveness of investment schemes for close to 100 companies using analytics. Appointed by Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports (Singapore) on evaluating the effectiveness of social enterprises managed by both private and non-profit organizations. Appointed by Malaysia s Central Bank research and advisory arm to evaluate the Shariah compliance of Islamic Financial Institutions in Malaysia; The launch and implementation of Globally-Ready Enterprises as part of Singapore-Oman SME Development work with Ministry of Commerce and Industry; Advisor to the Ministry of Health (Oman) on private sector development for healthcare practitioners (upcoming); Advised more than 5,000 SMEs through EDCs and Singapore Business Federation since 2008 across industry groups and stages of business life cycle. To achieve sustainable economic outcome for countries, industries and people. Mission To equip frontline personnel and decision-makers with effective, simple-to-use scorecards to create a larger impact.
COMPANY PROFILE EVOLUTIS PROJECTS DEVELOPMENT EVOLUTIS Projects Development is the business consulting arm of the ATW group of companies. It operates out of Mauritius and Madagascar. The firm is extensively involved in the development and promotion of investment opportunities in emerging markets. Our main expertise is in privatization, concession, licensing, business planning, economic and financial analysis, market studies, private sector and economic development. We work in close collaboration with many public and private clients, notably private companies, corporate investors, trade and investment banks, equity funds, financial institutions, development agencies, national and local governments, regional and international organizations and different trade associations developing their businesses and promoting economic development in emerging markets. With a multidisciplinary team, we intervene in many sectors, including telecoms, transport, energy, mining, tourism, agribusiness, environment and forestry, rural development, national and regional development, good governance, land tenure, etc. We are active both at the local, national, regional and international levels in Madagascar, Indian Ocean and Sub Saharan Africa. SERVICES EVOLUTIS Projects Development intervene at all stages of the project cycle, assisting clients in the identification, preparation, negotiation, implementation and evaluation and monitoring phases, through technical assistance and advisory services. Our range of services can be grouped into four main categories: 1. Market and sector studies Market and sector studies Marketing strategy Business intelligence 2. Promotion and facilitation of private investment projects Pre-feasibility and feasibility studies Financial modeling, business planning, strategic planning Due diligence, advisory services for mergers/acquisitions Development of strategic alliances 3. Economic development and institutional reforms Socio-economic studies Institutional studies and sector reforms Economic development projects design, appraisal, negotiation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation 4. Privatization, concession, licensing and PPP development Privatization, concession, licensing PPP Development Lobbying
APPENDIX 3 COMMENTERS PROFILE M NAZRI Group CEO Head, Global Advisory Services Vector Scorecard (VSC) Global M Nazri is a subject matter expert in impact measurement analytics which is gained through experience of working with global institutions that include banks, corporations and public agencies in more than 50 countries. With a specialisation in economic and financial analysis, he actively advises public and private sectors in Asia, Africa and the Middle East in policy-related issues, risk management, investments and economic transformation. Nazri started his career with Citigroup Asset Management in the late-90s, serving as its investment analyst where he was credited with the development of a performance attribution model and a credit risk evaluation system for the fund managers for Asia. Following that, he joined Prudential Asset Management where he was part of a core team managing the Asian Fixed Income (Institutional) Fund worth more than US$200m, which consistently outperformed the JP Morgan Asia Credit Index (JACI). Thereafter, he was headhunted to join Fitch Ratings as its Associate Director and managed the timely and accurate credit ratings of more than 30 Asian banks. Nazri has an MBA from the University of Western Australia. He also has a Bachelor of Commerce (Accountancy & Economics) from the University of Queensland and a Diploma in Accountancy from Ngee Ann Polytechnic. He has recently completed a program with the University of Oxford on Social Entrepreneurship - specifically covering areas on developing creative solutions to address social problems.
ALAXYS LIU Regional Director, Marketing & Business Development Vector Scorecard (VSC) Global Alaxys is the Regional Director, Marketing and Business Development at VSC. She is primarily responsible for the development and implementation of business strategies for the growth of the VSC Group across all product and market verticals. She also drives the Group s engagement with existing stakeholders and formation of strategic alliances and market channels in various parts of Asia, Africa, Americas and Europe. Under her current capacity, Alaxys takes the lead in managing projects related to public programmes for both local and foreign officials. These programmes span across key macro-level developmental areas such as in financial bureau, SME development, public finance, public procurement for SMEs and workforce development. Besides providing tactical inputs to the key functions of research, design and development in these projects, she also ensures effective communication to global partners and structures business proposals that maximises value for all stakeholders. With her keen interest on SME Development, Alaxys has been advocating and implementing solutions for SME s access to financing and capacity building in countries such as Madagascar, Cabo Verde, Angola, Georgia and Malaysia. She works closely with relevant Government agencies, regulators, banks and chambers to getting their support and resources to propose effective solutions at the policy, programme, people and platform level. In her immediate past career, Alaxys has been actively involved in driving national-level policy and SME development with key government agencies and TACs in Singapore. At the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), Alaxys was in the secretariat that pioneered the establishment of the SME Committee, a high-level committee comprising more than 50 prominent business representatives. She advocated key business issues such as manpower and government procurement through the publication of white papers to drive policy changes. In addition, she has supported SBF s representatives in the SME Workgroup, a government-led initiative to assist SMEs overcome challenges in restructuring and raising productivity. Her dedication and competence has earned her SBF s Employee Commendation Award for Resourcefulness in 2013. Alaxys holds a bachelor degree in Business Administration from the National University of Singapore. Beside academic performance, Alaxys has demonstrated strong leadership qualities in her Co-Curriculum Activities evident from her strong track record of managing more than ten school and national based projects.
THIERRY RAKOTOARISON Managing Director EVOLUTIS Projects Development Thierry Rakotoarison, 44, is one of the founding partner of Evolutis, a group of consulting firms launched in 1991, employing 60 full-time persons that operates out of Madagascar and Mauritius. The Group provides marketing research, GIS and mapping services, and advisory and technical assistance services related to economic development, trade and investment promotion to private companies, trade associations, international aid agencies, and local and national Governments. Thierry's specific expertise is in finance, privatization, PPP and private sector development. Under this capacity he leads the business consulting arm of the group, advising clients in Madagascar, the Indian Ocean Islands and Sub Saharan Africa, contributing to more than US$2 billion of public and private investments into Africa. Aside for his consulting experience he's also an investor in a number of private ventures, He is a director of Madagascar Singapore Business Promotion, a company dedicated to the promotion of partnership between Madagascar and Singapore based companies. He has been advisor to the Minister of Finance of Madagascar from 2005-07 and part of the Regulatory Board of the Central Bank of Madagascar from 2008-13. He's the immediate past president of the US Graduates' Association of Madagascar and is the current Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Madagascar. He's a member of the council of economic advisors of the President of Madagascar. He holds a bachelor degree in accounting from INSCAE, Antananarivo, and an MBA from Wichita State University, Kansas. He's a fellow of the international program on corporate governance, regulatory reform & privatization, a post graduate training program of Harvard University. He's married and a father of 4 children.