or loss of assets from natural disasters. the reality is that when low income households are faced with such difficulties, harsh choices are made to endure such ordeals and just to get by. their subsequent actions may deplete their quality of life, thus their standard of living declines and more people fall deeper into the poverty trap. in fiji, the poor are the most exposed to such risks and at the same time, are the least protected against the consequences. micro - insurance can play an integral role in diminishing the risks associated with catastrophic events. bis central bankers ’ speeches micro - insurance is new to fiji, with just two products, a funeral and a life policy introduced to the market in 2010. i would like to be able to tell you how successful these products have been in terms of their take - up, but i do not have the figures yet. a new product for protection against crop damage is also currently being explored. clearly there is scope for micro - insurance to develop in fiji given the existing demand for protection against health, life, education, financial and disaster risks. tonight ’ s product launch by lici is testament to that. as an institution whose vision is to lead fiji to economic success, the reserve bank of fiji believes that promoting micro - insurance is an investment for the future, but this needs a collaborative approach by all. lici has risen to that challenge and i applaud them for that. developments in financial inclusion and microfinance ladies and gentlemen, as you may be aware, in 2009 a national microfinance workshop was organized by the reserve bank and supported by the pacific financial inclusion programme ( pfip ). a key outcome at this workshop was the commitment by participants to a common vision of “ … reaching at least 150, 000 unbanked citizens through a coordinated national effort by the year 2014 ”. to promote this vision, the national financial inclusion taskforce was established and given the job to monitor and drive strategies in achieving financial inclusion goals. to support the work of the taskforce, three working groups were also established to focus on financial literacy, statistics and microfinance. a follow up workshop was held in march this year where stakeholders took stock of what had been achieved to date. more importantly, forward plans were reviewed with the 2014 target in mind. in addition to this, the rbf has continued its outreach and awareness by way of microfinance expositions. in 2010, together with our many stakeholders, we held three expos in

barry whiteside : prosecuting money laundering crimes closing speech by mr barry whiteside, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the 3rd national anti - money laundering conference on “ prosecuting money laundering crimes ”, suva, 9 november 2011. * * * introduction members of the national anti - money laundering council, members of the judiciary, invited speakers and conference delegates. a good afternoon to you all. we have come to the end of an intense day of discussions and i do not intend to keep you seated for too much longer! i trust that you have all enjoyed and benefited from the presentations and in - depth discussions at today ’ s conference. this year ’ s conference theme on prosecuting money laundering crimes is a timely one. thank you to the panel of speakers for sharing with us your valuable knowledge and experiences on our theme. thank you also madam shameem for your concise summary of today ’ s conference discussions. yes. the sessions today highlighted a number of important issues relating to the conference theme which we all need to ponder over and, more importantly, act on when we return to our offices. challenges it is quite clear that we face various challenges in prosecuting money laundering and in tracing and seizing criminal proceeds. the speakers have outlined some of these challenges relating to : i. expertise and resource issues ; ii. interpretation of the money laundering laws in fiji ; and iii. effective use of these money laundering laws by the relevant agencies. i urge you all to find ways to overcome these challenges. conferences like ours today, provide a perfect opportunity to bring people together to discuss strategies for dealing with these challenges and for sharing knowledge and experiences. ( this is our third such annual conference so i do hope we are taking the benefits forward! my plea is let ’ s not see this as a days paid leave away from the office! ) we also have the national aml council and its law enforcement working group which can facilitate networking and information sharing across agencies. effective use of legal provisions i would like to briefly touch on the issue of effective use of our money laundering laws to prosecute money laundering crimes. this is a key challenge facing our investigators and prosecutors. bis central bankers ’ speeches the ag clearly pointed out to us this morning that if we cannot successfully prosecute these crimes, then we signal to the criminal elements that we are not ready and they will continue to move in on us. today ’ s conference has highlighted that we do have the laws to prosecute money laundering activities. we also