rick houenipwela : credit unions – legal & compliance opening address by mr rick houenipwela, governor of the central bank of solomon islands, at the credit unions legal & compliance workshop, honiara, 16 - 17 april 2008. * * * introduction salutations : presidents, managers, board & committee members of respective credit unions ; general manager of sicul ; media representatives ; ladies and gentlemen : i am pleased to welcome you all this morning to mark the opening of your workshop on the topic “ credit unions : legal & compliance ” that you will cover in the next two days. this is the second workshop that cbsi and the office of registrar of credit unions have conducted in the past 12 months for credit unions that are members of the solomon islands credit union league. the first was held for the board of directors and management of the central malaita credit union limited in september 2007, on the topic : “ strategic planning and loan delinquency control. ” this is yet another example to demonstrate the central bank ’ s long term commitment to support the development of credit unions in our country. let me now turn to the subject of this morning ’ s topic, which you will be covering in the next two days. in emphasizing the importance of this workshop, i would like to make three points. legal compliance first, i want to stress that it is vital for credit unions to comply with the legal requirements in their operations. it is important for you as a board or a member of the management team to understand that your credit union is set up under a legal framework. that legal framework requires you to conduct and manage your business in accordance with the provisions of the credit union act and its standard by - laws and regulations. while some credit unions are trying to comply, it is sad to note that non - compliance is still a wide spread problem in many credit unions. some examples of areas for compliance include submission of timely audited financial statements and reports, holding of annual general meetings, proper election of officer bearers and paying your dues to the solomon islands credit union league ( sicul ). i hope as a result of this workshop, we will see more effective compliance with the legal requirements under the credit unions act 1986. role of credit union in the development the financial system i turn to my second point : where do credit unions fit in the financial system and what is their role in the development of the financial system? let me reiterate that the cbsi takes

to teach our young people to understand these saving habits is critical. and third word in the theme is “ earn ”. this word focuses on livelihood skills, business training and job training. it emphasises that we can start to help our children to learn what is required to work towards education to achieve a career they dream to have ; educate our children to start good business practices of how to own their own businesses, which includes going into agriculture productions, buying and selling of farm products, owning a retail shop or a transport business or involved in service industry as legal advisers, accountants or as medical practitioners or information technology or engineering. earning an income has many sources. [ ( optional and can be left out ) let me tell you a story about a 10 - year boy who lives in a village called zutapate in dovele, vella la vella. this is a true story that our deputy governor learnt while he was having his holiday there recently. let us call him johnny. johnny ’ s parents are just ordinary villagers and like village parents they work hard to earn income by providing transportation to people who want to come gizo or sell fresh fish to villages around them. johnny however saw an opportunity and takes advantage of his parents coming to gizo ; he decided to ask his parents to buy a carton of noodles, cans of soltuna, boxes of matches and lollies to sell to his friends or people in his village. since coming to gizo is expensive for the villagers, they buy the goods from johnny ’ s little canteen. johnny saves his earning and continue to recycle his cash flow until he has accumulated enough money to pay for his own school fees this year. and as i understand, he is still in business to raise money for his school fee next year. i like this story because it is the children like johnny who can develop the savings habits and entrepreneurial habits earlier in their lives that we want to see as future economic citizens of our country. ] so our global money week theme “ learn, save and earn ” emphasises the need to help our children and youth to learn about money, how to save and how to earn money either as professional employees or as business owners. i am sure you will learn more about this when you participate and go around the stalls this morning. thirdly, the particular focus of this global money week is to bring attention to everyone that a credit union is one of the powerful institutions that can help our children and youth to learn financial