areas can participate and benefit from its positive spill overs. to revitalize the sector, we should seriously invest in : 1. replanting. aside from the current stocks, we need to replenish the stock of our agricultural current commodities over the next three to four years. a. for cocoa, the country needs to boost output by an additional 3, 000 metric tons per year. this means growing an additional 885 hectares of cocoa plants. and if the country can export 10, 000 tons a year, foreign exchange earnings will increase significantly. this will at least reduce the gap in the revenue loss from the expected decline in logging. b. to boost copra and coconut oil production, we would need to plant nearly 2 million new 4 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches coconut trees. c. while, palm oil would need an additional 800 hectares. this is only a 12 percent increase from the current acreage of palm oil plantations. 2. growing new cash crops. the country needs to promote the growing and export of promising cash crops, such as kava, cassava and noni, and even delve into new ones like ginger and chilli. 3. the key stakeholders. enhance and properly resource the ministry of agriculture, and associated agencies such as cema to appropriately support farmers, while also liaising with development partners and programs such as pharma. with respect to tourism, this is a growth sector with cross cutting positive spill overs and can be a catalyst for infrastructure, employment, education, wholesale retail, transport and technology development. as such, tourism solomons ’ target of reaching 60, 000 visitors by 2025 is achievable, if we invest in : 1. around two medium size brand hotels in the country to act as an anchor for the growth of other tourism standard hotels. 2. better sea, air and land infrastructure around the country to support this industry that would also facilitate trade. the recent opening of munda for international air services is a commendable start. 3. and as earlier expressed, enhance and properly resource the key stakeholders such as the ministry of tourism, and tourism solomons, in conjunction with other stakeholders to actively promote this sector. now these are just some ways we could shape our economy as we see slowdowns in the forestry industry, and strive to diversify the economy. there are of course other important sectors such as fisheries and manufacturing, where due to time, we may discuss at another time. finally, as

our voices are heard. international groupings like the alliance for financial inclusion ( afi ) have recognised our work and other regions are bis central bankers ’ speeches trying to emulate what we are doing. we owe all that recognition and success to the piwg. i am sure a lot of these achievements will be highlighted during the course of this meeting. another major achievement in my view is that all of you here attending this meeting represent a pool of financial inclusion experts in the region. this is a key resource for our region and i would like to encourage us to make use of our regional experts so that we continue to build our pool of experts. financial inclusion activities in solomon islands ladies and gentlemen, let me briefly share some of the efforts we are making in addressing financial inclusion issues in solomon islands. our current focus is on the twin pillars of access to and use of financial services in the country. the question of access requires making financial services available and affordable to as many people as possible. at the moment financial services in solomon islands are available only in honiara and in the provincial centres. if we define access by say, less than 2 hours walk ( or paddle ) to the nearest financial services access point as the ideal, then more than 80 % of the solomon islands population is being denied access to financial services. this is huge challenge for the country. so the primary target in our national financial inclusion action plan is that by 2015 an additional 70, 000 people should have access to financial services in the country. in order to achieve this, we are focusing on technology as a means of financial distribution channels and community based approaches to promoting and delivering savings and credit activities. and to ensure that our legal framework supports these efforts, we have, with adb support, completed a review of our current laws and policies last year to ensure any legal impediments to financial services innovation are identified and addressed. the second pillar of our approach to financial inclusion is on the use of financial services. financial services and products should be used by anyone anytime. this means we have to unlock and remove barriers that deny ordinary people from using the available financial services. this requires further effort in two areas : first to enable people who are being denied using financial services because of legal and administrative barriers and secondly to assist people who cannot use and benefit from financial services because of lack of knowledge and understanding. our approach in trying to address both areas has been to identify and remove the legal and policy barriers that inhibit usage and to enhance people ’