barry whiteside : promoting fiji ’ s youth to “ be money wi $ e ” address by mr barry whiteside, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the “ be money wi $ e ” nasinu schools competition, nasinu financial inclusion exposition, nasinu town, 23 july 2015. * * * ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, good morning to you all and a special bula vinaka and welcome to our students and teachers who have come here today. i hope this will be a fun - filled day for all of you. i can still remember the joy i got taking time off school for special visits or other activities outside of the normal everyday curriculum. introductory comments first, let me say how delighted i am to be here with you this morning to mark the start of some very exciting and competitive events which we have planned for your benefit. all this activity is part of our “ be money wi $ e program ” organised by the reserve bank and our capital markets colleagues, to help you learn more about money matters. this event is really for you. so i must thank your principals and teachers for bringing you out here today. however, before we get into the excitement of the competitions, i would just like to share a few messages which i hope will help give you some idea in planning for a successful financial future. be money wi $ e – what the students can do for themselves at the reserve bank, we run a campaign which we call the “ be money wise program ”. it is part of the capital markets awareness platform, targeting school students. its objective is to promote the importance of acquiring good money management skills with a particular focus on understanding the concept of investing and all the various investment products available here in fiji. so girls and boys, “ be money wise ” is designed to teach you, and all the children in fiji, “ money smart ” principles. this is done through creative, fun - filled activities, some of which you will get to do over the course of today. we envision, that over time, such activities will lead to the development of a culture of financial prudence ( smartness ), preparing you well for your adult working life. relating money to future goals so let ’ s first talk about money, and how important it is in our everyday lives. many people, unfortunately, feel it is the only thing in life, while others think the opposite and feel they have no need for it at all, and many sayings

challenges facing our pacific islands. i congratulate all our researchers who will be presenting their work during the conference. the research papers are the culmination of critical thinking and innovative proposals that should be encouraged to the next step of being published in reputable journals. in closing, i wish you all a successful workshop and i trust that the knowledge - sharing will be useful and rewarding to you personally and to your respective organizations and countries. i also hope that you will find time to enjoy suva. it may be challenging to listen to all the technical discussions planned, especially having such a conference in the festive month of december, so please do enjoy our fijian hospitality and may i also take this opportunity to wish you all a blessed christmas and a prosperous 2019. thank you!