The Ministry of Finance, UAE, in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will organize a fintech seminar as a part of the Ministry’s commitment to support innovation within the government financial work, The Gulf Today reported.

The fintech seminar will correspond with the second day of 5th Global Government Summit 2017 that is scheduled from February 12 to 14, 2017 in Dubai. The seminar will see keynote speakers including Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of IMF, with Pierre Gramegna, Minister of Finance in Luxembourg and Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs.

“The seminar will cover a number of important topics including virtual currencies, and the underlying distributed ledgers through a blockchain technology. These topics have been at the center of recent debates about how digital innovation changes financial fields,” Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, said, as reported by Gulf Today.

Al Tayer mentioned the notable contributions that are witnessed by the developments in digital currencies and blockchain technology that will drive an effective change in the financial sector. He also stated the importance of the range of services that are provided by fintechs like high-frequency trading (HFT), crowdfunding, among others.

The seminar will be headed by Prince Guillaume, Crown Prince of Luxembourg; Younis Haji Al Khoori, Undersecretary of MoF; Khalid Ali Al Bustani, Assistant Undersecretary for International Financial Relations, along with various international experts in government financial and fintech fields.

Discussing on the challenges and opportunities derived from fintech services, the seminar will emphasis on the importance for regulatory authorities to keep up with the technological changes. “It is also important to find a balance between risk treatment and the misuse of technology to avoid over-regulation which may limit innovation,” Al Tayer added.