Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 114 Part 2.djvu/206

 114 STAT. 1088 PUBLIC LAW 106-309—OCT. 17, 2000 the global microenterprise sector in a way that maintains market principles while ensuring that the very poor overseas, particularly women, obtain access to financial services overseas; (2) shall provide guidelines and recommendations for— (A) instruments to assist microenterprise networks to develop multi-country and regional microlending programs; (B) technical assistance to foreign governments, foreign central banks, and regulatory entities to improve the policy environment for microfinance institutions, and to strengthen the capacity of supervisory bodies to supervise microfinance institutions; (C) the potential for Federal chartering of United States-based international microfinance network institutions, including proposed legislation; (D) instruments to increase investor confidence in microfinance institutions which would strengthen the longterm financial position of the microfinance institutions and attract capital from private sector entities and individuals, such as a rating system for microfinance institutions and local credit bureaus; (E) an agenda for integrating microfinance into United States foreign policy initiatives seeking to develop and strengthen the global finance sector; and (F) innovative instruments to attract funds from the capital markets, such as instruments for leveraging funds from the local commercial banking sector, and the securitization of microloan portfolios; and (3) shall include a section that assesses the need for a microenterprise accelerated growth fund and that includes— (A) a description of the benefits of such a fund; (B) an identification of which microenterprise institutions might become eligible for assistance from such fund; (C) a description of how such a fund could be administered; (D) a recommendation on which agency or agencies of the United States Government should administer the fund and within which such agency the fund should be located; and (E) a recommendation on how soon it might be necessary to establish such a fund in order to provide the support necessary for microenterprise institutions involved in microenterprise development. (c) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES DEFINED. — In this section, the term "appropriate congressional committees" means the Committee on International Relations of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate. SEC. 109. UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOP- MENT AS GLOBAL LEADER AND COORDINATOR OF BILATERAL AND MULTILATERAL MICROENTERPRISE ASSISTANCE ACTIVITIES. (a) FINDINGS AND POLICY.— Congress finds and declares that— (1) the United States can provide leadership to other bilateral and multilateral development agencies as such agencies expand their support to the microenterprise sector; and (2) the United States should seek to improve coordination among G—7 countries in the support of the microenterprise

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