savenaca narube : following in the wake of asia ’ s progress – are we being left behind? summary of a speech by mr savenaca narube, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the pacific economic governance agencies ’ seminar “ following in the wake of asia ’ s progress – are we being left behind? ”, at the forum secretariat, suva, 1 june 2006. * * * 1. presentation outline • the presentation covers the economic performances of the fiji and selected south pacific island states and selected asian economies. • the major challenges for pacific island countries are presented with the recommended solutions. 2. economic performances • several factors affect the economic performance of small island states in the pacific. these include smallness and isolation of the islands, globlisation and the gradual loss of preferential markets, weather and environmental factors, lack of capacity and political instability. • two fundamental concerns are that economic growth is both volatile and low in fiji and across other pacific island countries. • recently, some countries like samoa have been raising their economic growth rates successfully, while others are still struggling. compared to other pacific island economies, fiji ’ s economic growth performance stands in the middle ground, not as high as samoa ’ s and not as low as the solomon islands. when fiji is benchmarked against selected asian countries, it shows how far we have to go in order to catch up with these economies. • using the undp ’ s human development index ( hdi ) as a measure of the quality of life, fiji ranks lower than both tonga and samoa. 3. asia has its own challenges • asia comprises around one third of the world ’ s population. • poverty is a result of such large populations which require sizeable economic development in order to create ample employment opportunities for the people. • corruption is endemic and almost acceptable in asia. civil unrest can sometimes be the result of such an environment. • pollution is a problem in asia. rising industries and technologies are having a detrimental effect on the environment. natural disasters, while unavoidable, are a possible result of the degradation of the environment. • close proximities to other asian nations and the rest of the world has resulted in geopolitical problems. • terrorism is a growing problem affecting both locals and visitors to the region. 4. factors affecting economic growth in the pacific islands • the smallness and isolation of the pacific islands are a challenge on its own. • globalisation has opened up

sada reddy : economic indicators and implications – where to from here? address by mr sada reddy, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the fiji institute of bankers ’ convention, suva, 23 october 2010. * * * introduction his excellency the president of the republic of the fiji islands, ratu epeli nailatikau, the attorney - general & minister for justice, anti - corruption, public enterprise, industry, tourism & trade and communications, mr. aiyaz sayed - khaiyum, the president of the fiji institute of bankers, mr. norman wilson, distinguished guests, ladies & gentlemen good morning and thank you for inviting me to speak to you on this occasion of the inaugural convention of the fiji institute of bankers ( fib ). the fib, which will turn 20 years soon, plays a very important role in the training and development of bank professionals in fiji. i must congratulate the fib for this excellent initiative in bringing together professionals and partners from the financial sector as well as stakeholders from the public and private sectors towards a common interest, that is, to establish a vision and strategic direction for the banking sector towards 2015 – the theme of today ’ s convention. i have great pleasure this morning to speak on the topic “ economic indicators and implications – where to from here? ” first i will provide an overview of the current state of the economy and its future outlook, before i move on to outlining the future policy direction for our economy. as bankers, we can attest to the prominent role played by financial institutions in the development of any economy. in fiji, the contribution of the financial sector to total real growth or total value added product of the economy is around 9 percent. as a measure of its size, total assets of the financial sector in fiji is around 180 percent of the country ’ s overall gross domestic product ( gdp ). this ratio has increased from about 150 percent five years ago and shows the increasing importance of the financial sector in our economy. in addition, the financial sector employs around 8, 800 people which accounts for around 7 percent of paid employment in fiji. an efficient and sound financial sector is essential for economic growth. the intermediation process which facilitates the transfer of funds from savers to borrowers, contributes significantly to raising investment, generating income, creating employment opportunities and supporting our economy. as someone said, credit is the oxygen on which businesses grow and survive. therefore, as would be true