to teach our young people to understand these saving habits is critical. and third word in the theme is “ earn ”. this word focuses on livelihood skills, business training and job training. it emphasises that we can start to help our children to learn what is required to work towards education to achieve a career they dream to have ; educate our children to start good business practices of how to own their own businesses, which includes going into agriculture productions, buying and selling of farm products, owning a retail shop or a transport business or involved in service industry as legal advisers, accountants or as medical practitioners or information technology or engineering. earning an income has many sources. [ ( optional and can be left out ) let me tell you a story about a 10 - year boy who lives in a village called zutapate in dovele, vella la vella. this is a true story that our deputy governor learnt while he was having his holiday there recently. let us call him johnny. johnny ’ s parents are just ordinary villagers and like village parents they work hard to earn income by providing transportation to people who want to come gizo or sell fresh fish to villages around them. johnny however saw an opportunity and takes advantage of his parents coming to gizo ; he decided to ask his parents to buy a carton of noodles, cans of soltuna, boxes of matches and lollies to sell to his friends or people in his village. since coming to gizo is expensive for the villagers, they buy the goods from johnny ’ s little canteen. johnny saves his earning and continue to recycle his cash flow until he has accumulated enough money to pay for his own school fees this year. and as i understand, he is still in business to raise money for his school fee next year. i like this story because it is the children like johnny who can develop the savings habits and entrepreneurial habits earlier in their lives that we want to see as future economic citizens of our country. ] so our global money week theme “ learn, save and earn ” emphasises the need to help our children and youth to learn about money, how to save and how to earn money either as professional employees or as business owners. i am sure you will learn more about this when you participate and go around the stalls this morning. thirdly, the particular focus of this global money week is to bring attention to everyone that a credit union is one of the powerful institutions that can help our children and youth to learn financial

education at an early age. a credit union is similar to a commercial bank, it can provide the same products and services like a commercial bank, but what is different is that the credit union is owned by members who are the shareholders and at the same time are customers to the credit union. credit unions can provide different saving accounts to suit the needs of their members. they can create saving products such as junior saving accounts for the children. credit unions provide lending products for their members. and credit unions can provide insurance coverage for their members as well. one of the reasons people explain why they don ’ t want to open an account with a commercial bank is that because banks charge fees to keep their accounts. while paying fees is something that we all cannot avoid because provision of banking services costs money, in a credit union the interests, fees and charges that are paid by members is distributed back to the members as net interest income. i say this because i am also member of our staff credit union called bokolo credit union limited day one when i join the central bank of solomon islands and know the benefit credit unions can give members. as the registrar for credit unions, i take note of the progress in the growth of the assets of both the soltuna employees credit union limited and the tuna trust credit union limited. if the board and management of these credit unions continue to manage these credit unions professionally, they will both be the vehicle to encourage our children and youth here in noro and munda community to learn how to save and earn and become good financial and economic citizens of our country. finally, let me take this opportunity to thank the many people who made this global money week celebration possible. to the board of directors of both tuna trust credit union limited and soltuna employees credit union limited. i salute you for accepting our request to work together to host this global money week. i would like to thank selwyn talasasa, one of the long serving credit union promoters who has been a credit union person since day one of his career. he has been very helpful in organizing our global money week. thank you selwyn. i also thank the global money week committee for their assistance in organising this global money week. and thanks to the management of both national fisheries development limited and soltuna limited for your support in hosting this global money week. thank you nfd and soltuna, you made us all proud as good cooperate citizens. to our noro town clerk for your support.