loi m bakani : financial inclusion and financial literacy in papua new guinea welcome address by mr loi m bakani, governor of the bank of papua new guinea, at the national financial inclusion and financial literacy development workshop, port moresby, 22 august 2013. * * * honorable don p polye, mp, minister of treasury un resident coordinator, our colleagues representing key department ad ministries, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, welcome. i would also like to extend a special welcome to the pacific financial inclusion program, our partner in conducting this workshop. i offer in advance my thanks to our session chairs and panelists in the topic discussions later today and tomorrow for the wealth of insight they will impart into our deliberations. my deepest gratitude also to those who have travelled from the provinces and from abroad to take part in our first national strategy for financial inclusion and financial literacy workshop. papua new guinea has been at the forefront of innovations and commitments aimed at building an inclusive financial system, because we recognize its role in enhancing sustainable economic growth and development. the national informal economy policy ’ s included financial inclusion as one of its two main pillars for 2011 – 2015. and earlier this year, the national executive council endorsed the centre for excellence in financial inclusion ( cefi ). whether it is creating new technologies or drawing on technologies already widely available such as mobile phones – our banks and private sector actors have led efforts to move beyond cash and make electronic transfers possible for more people in more places – including most critically to the poor and those otherwise unable to access financial services. donors and our civil society also play a vital role in making innovations work – including to reach poor and vulnerable groups. their work helps to close capacity gaps & expand the opportunities available to poor people. it also important that our government and public leaders strike the right balance btw incentivizing innovation while ensuring new initiatives are fair, inclusive, and sustainable. to this end bank of png continues to put in place appropriate regulations, safeguards and adequate infrastructure. however, financial exclusion remains astoundingly high and is most severe among women and rural and informal workers. today ’ s national workshop on financial inclusion and financial literacy is about coming together to recognize those challenges that stand in our way. we must commit ourselves to overcoming them in a coordinated and collaborative way. because we cannot solve them as one institution or one individual. the workshop will start with setting the parameters for what is means to build an inclusive financial sector, after

collapse of the insurance subsidiaries of the cl financial group is perhaps the most widely cited example of the systemic importance of these cross - border financial groups. cartac has already done some good work in assisting in the drafting of financial sector legislation by bringing a wider international perspective. the centre ’ s assistance to the central banks in producing a regional financial stability report is anticipated to be of great benefit in assisting the region to diagnose financial vulnerabilities and develop corrective strategies ex ante to forestall potential future crises. one aspect that is often unheralded is cartac ’ s work on macroeconomic statistics. indeed, many countries have severe institutional problems that inhibit the gathering, accurate processing and timely dissemination of data, creating a weak base for policy design. in a difficult and sometimes frustrating environment, cartac has been able to help in providing bis central bankers ’ speeches consultants and training local staff to improve statistics on consumer prices, the balance of payments and national accounts. trinidad and tobago considers itself a strong collaborator of the institution and wholeheartedly supports its work and vision. for our part, we have benefitted from technical assistance / consultancy support in the financial sector as well as fiscal and debt management. we continue to receive support to strengthen the price and balance of payments statistics and just last week we hosted a consultant who is assisting us to develop and implement a plan to rebase our quarterly gross domestic product estimates. our semi - annual bank stress testing exercises, which we have done over the past two and a half years, was developed with a cartac consultant, who earlier this year revisited our shores and worked with us on upgrading the test parameters and methodology. staff at the central bank and at government ministries gained valuable training on macroeconomic issues and policy design. this is a cartac contribution which we consider extremely important in helping to develop the capacity of our future policy makers. we also commend cartac for organizing the summer internship program – we have had the good fortune of having some excellent interns and we will continue to participate in this initiative. as with any technical assistance program, we recognize that sustainability must be a major objective. as we discuss the recent activities of the centre and the way forward during today ’ s proceedings, we should keep constantly in mind the need to develop programs in a way that would progressively transfer the knowledge and expertise to recipient countries. in this way cartac ’ s contribution would be all the more durable. moreover, we should utilize as far as possible the avenues