in social sciences, business, and law ; with about 20 percent in engineering manufacture and construction, and about another 10 percent in science. this means that we currently have comparative advantage in terms of good quality social scientists, which should be augmented by english language and ict skills. having said that, we also need to put much more resources into education areas with significant impact on wages and work flexibility, such as engineering and science. the third part of the strategy relates to the market environment and government policy to support labor mobility and human capital development. in many asean countries, the labor market environment has been that of persistent shortage. with plenty of job opportunities at home, the lack of urgency to compete for jobs may have lessened the incentives for long - term planning to develop new skills and change human capital profile to take advantage of global mobility. this problem has been amplified by the demographic trend of an ageing society with young talents becoming scarce in the future. on the public policy front, public investment in education is particularly necessary for enhancing productivity gains for future growth. moreover, as people become global citizens, we cannot always rely on rules and regulations, or market rules of the game to bring about their right behavior. in this regard, the educational curriculum needs to embrace elements on transparency, accountability, governance, and ethics. this will help lessen the corruption problem which ranks high in the list of factors that can undermine competitive strength of any economy. while the role of public investment in education is vital, i see increasing financial constraints in this area, as well as in public health and social safety nets, because of short - term fiscal limits and lack of long - term fiscal planning in a number of countries. for education, in particular, while in the short term private sector initiatives for in - house training or vocational educational support may help bridge skill mismatch, this is unlikely to be a sustainable solution. faced with fiscal limitations, the public sector will need to explore creative publicprivate partnerships to avoid undermining necessary developments in this important area. ladies and gentlemen, i would like to conclude by emphasizing that in the era of global citizenship, we should capitalize on the major driving force in advancing toward full global citizenship. for thailand and asean countries, we have the aec as a natural stepping stone to embrace regional citizenship. looking ahead, much work remains to be done for a number of countries to improve the readiness of human capital to evolve toward global citizenship. our people must be developed to the degree that they

respectively. summary • global economic slowdown may adversely impact smaller island countries in the pacific, including fiji. • economic growth positive in the medium term but very low. • fiji ’ s economy very resilient despite the global economic problems, and high oil and food prices. • government ’ s fiscal consolidation over the last 2 years. greater scope for increase in capital expenditure from 2009 onwards. • exports expected to pick up although imports remain strong : trade deficit remains a concern. • monetary conditions conducive for growth but will remain tight. • inflation is high – downside risks remain high. • foreign reserves stable but need to manage carefully. address key challenges now : • raise economic growth to around 5 % plus. • reduce reliance on imported fuel – invest in alternative energy and introduce fuel consumption policies. • food imports to be reduced through more local production. will require reforms e. g. land tenure. • raise investments through stable and consistent policies and create a more investor friendly environment. • reduce trade deficit through growing exports and increasing visitor arrivals to raise occupancy to around 80 percent.