in addition, the basic law stipulates that the chinese government shall not levy taxes in hong kong. these triple safeguards are evidence that china does not have its eyes on siphoning off the resources of hong kong. the fifth principle relates to the treatment of financial business between china and hong kong. after 1997, all financial business between the two places will be conducted in accordance with the rules and practices of international financial activities. claims and liabilities between banks and companies from the mainland and those in hong kong will continue to be regarded as external claims and liabilities. when raising funds in hong kong, chinese entities will have equal treatment as other international and local market participants, without any special privileges. disputes relating to contracts between banks and companies of the mainland and those of hong kong shall be handled in accordance with international practice. where china ’ s arbitration law and other relevant laws and regulations are applied, the provisions relating to arbitration involving foreign parties will apply. the sixth principle is about the standing of mainland financial institutions in hong kong. as discussed earlier, mainland financial institutions in hong kong must abide by the law of hong kong and be regulated by relevant regulatory authorities there. i would like to stress that the bank of china group, though being one of the three note - issuing banks and a leading commercial bank in hong kong, shall not be treated more favourably than other banks. it shall not carry out any activities beyond the role of a commercial bank. the seventh principle is on the complementarity between shanghai and hong kong. as you know, shanghai used to be china ’ s financial centre. with china ’ s deepening reforms and open - door policy, shanghai is becoming a vibrant city with tremendous potential for further development. to a certain extent, shanghai has met the conditions for reviving herself as a financial centre. while there are concerns as to whether shanghai will replace hong kong, i would like to emphasise that these are groundless speculations because the basic law has already stipulated that hong kong shall maintain its status as an international financial centre. we are of the view that hong kong and shanghai will have a complementary and mutually reinforcing relationship. in the short run, and at least before the renminbi becomes fully convertible, it will not be possible for shanghai to become an international financial centre. given the size of china ’ s economy, there is plenty of room for more than one financial centre. hong kong and shanghai will likely become two complementary and mutually reinforcing financial centres

galvanize the whole nation to achieve them. i am confident that we have the resources to realise this target if only we can raise the efficiency of using them and a firm commitment to implement what we agree to do. i am one of many who firmly believe that fiji ’ s potential is huge. we have realised just a very small part of that. where are these potential? my answer is that they can be everywhere – in tourism, in agriculture, in forestry, in fishing, in sports, in it and so forth. there is no reason why fiji cannot aspire to be like the tigers of asia such as singapore, malaysia and so forth. again, productivity holds the key to growing these industries. we therefore need to ask ourselves – “ what must we do to raise economic growth ”? how can we grow faster? ” obviously, we need to do many things, some of which are quite challenging to do, but we need to get started. i will highlight the two that i think are the most important and how productivity can contribute to solving our problems. firstly, we must raise investment – we need to raise investment to over 25 percent of gdp. foremost, let us not forget that we need to support and promote local investment. but this is not enough. we need to attract foreign investment. here, we are competing for the same investment dollar with some bigger and richer countries. investors look at several things before they invest. they look at the environment – political, economic and social. they look at government policies and regulations and how these are applied. investors look at the state of the infrastructure. finally, investors also look at the quality of labour and their unit cost. the efficiency of capital is a key decision maker. productivity therefore becomes an important issue for investors. secondly, exports must drive growth – exports must be the key driver of economic growth for a country like fiji. there is, in my view, no other way to grow the economy in a sustainable manner. when we export either goods or services, we are competing with other countries supplying the same products. we cannot rely on preferential access anymore. as i said they are already coming down. we must stand on our own two feet. to enable us to do that, we must compete not only in prices but also in quality. we are competing with many countries which have low cost structures and high productivity. our work is cut out for us. therefore raising our productivity level must be a priority. if we cannot compete in