encompassing framework to guide community or village development. no doubt, there are abundant natural resources and manpower capacity in our rural areas. however, we continue to notice the lack of progress by successive authorities in developing our rural dwellers to become more economically active. the rural area is home to about 52 percent of fiji ’ s population. more importantly, most of fiji ’ s key exports are rural based, providing the greatest potential for future development and prosperity, particularly in the tourism, agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors. it is therefore important that a suitable development scheme or framework is put in place in our rural villages and communities. our policies do not discriminate between the nationalities of businesses. all of you have the same benefit from these policies as any other business in fiji. you must seek these opportunities out. concluding remarks in summary, ladies and gentlemen, we have seen that the global economy is recovering. this is good news for us – we can expect our exports and services, such as tourism, to pick up. as i had just mentioned, the need for us to maintain a healthy bop position means that we should expect relatively tight fiscal and monetary policies in the near - term. i have also taken some time to highlight the areas that the reserve bank is working on to promote small and micro enterprise development, which is in line with the fibc ’ s role in developing fijian businesses. it is in your council ’ s interest to ensure that indigenous businesses are aware of these initiatives and that they benefit from them. i wish to once again underscore the importance of financial discipline and a culture of hard work and personal discipline which will ensure your success in business. in conclusion ladies and gentlemen, i thank you again for the invitation to speak to you this morning. and i wish this symposium and your businesses all the best in the future. vinaka vakalevu.

global economy has managed to turn this situation around. the world economy is improving and according to the international monetary fund ( imf ), the global economy is expected to grow by 4. 2 percent this year, following a contraction of 0. 6 % in 2009. last year ’ s performance of the global economy is actually regarded as the worst since the great depression of the 1930s. on a positive note though, a further growth of 4. 3 percent is expected in 2011. ladies and gentlemen, except for australia, all our trading partner economies contracted last year as a result of the global financial crisis. this significantly affected our exports and tourism last year. however, the worst is over now and all of these countries are expected to post a modest growth this year and continue this into 2011. this is good news for fiji, as this means increased demand for our exports and tourism. in fact, we are already seeing the effects of these, especially in the tourism industry, where we see a strong recovery in visitor arrivals. amongst advanced countries, the us economy is doing better than europe and japan, while for emerging and developing economies, asia is driving the recovery. in particular, china and india recorded high growth rates in 2009 and are expected to record similar growth in 2010. as is the case in most developed and developing economies worldwide, it is the business / private sector that will drive these growth prospects. having said that, indigenous businesses play an important and crucial role in the development of their economies. all businesses, whether big or small, have a role to play in the development of the economy. before i return to this subject in more detail, let me share with you our expectations on the domestic economic outlook. economic conditions ladies and gentlemen, let me now touch on fiji ’ s current economic conditions and prospects. our economy has been contracting over the last 3 years. last year our economy contracted by 2. 2 percent. however, the economy is expected to regain some strength in 2010 and continue this performance into the next two years. for this year, we are expecting most sectors to show positive growth except for agriculture & forestry and health & social work sectors, which are projected to decline. the agriculture sector was badly hit by cyclone tomas, resulting in a downward revision of the overall growth rate for this year, which now stands at 1. 8 percent. looking ahead into the next two years, growth is also expected to be broad - based. apart from an expected decline in the building and construction sector, the