, and is now a national strategic priority. women's micro bank's services successfully address several financial inclusion objectives : 1 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches providing deposit - taking and lending opportunities to people who would otherwise be unbanked promoting financial literacy and business development skills by supporting training encouraging people in the informal sector, such as market vendors, to graduate into the formal economy, through access to banking services, financial assistance and capacity building supporting the msme and sme sectors helping grow the agriculture sector value chain, particularly for coffee, vanilla, cocoa and copra businesses. from bpng's point of view, each of these activities makes a significant contribution to achieving the broader objective of building sustainable economic growth. i also acknowledge women's micro bank's willingness to collaborate with other organisations, including government agencies, and national and international development partners, to achieve meaningful and valuable results. these practices reflect a clear recognition by the leadership of mama bank that operating a successful enterprise in our modern world requires partnering, cooperation and effective communication. as the regulator of the png financial system, the bank of papua new guinea welcomes this attitude in participants in the financial services sector. i mentioned mama bank's reputation as an innovator. this is of particular interest to me. as some of you may know, in my previous role as assistant governor, one of my key responsibilities was to create a favourable environment in which financial technology, fintech, could be developed to help bring basic financial services to all png citizens. one of the successful initiatives bpng has implemented is the regulatory sandbox. this is a system where products are put through rigorous testing to make sure they will work in the real world and will comply with the applicable rules and regulations, without the cost and risks associated with launching a new product to the marketplace. the sandbox's first graduate, a digital id product that provides certainty of identification without the need for mains power or internet access, has now been adopted by mama bank and implemented as an id card, in partnership with the fintech developer digizen. the digital id innovation is not the first time mama bank has led the way with fintech to reach customers. i note that women's micro bank introduced biometrics back in 2018 to enable its customer enrolment process, the first of its kind in png. with this strong tradition of bringing simple and effective financial services to the unbanked, it is obvious that women's

. their advise on technical matters and have assisted us on the technical specification, security and design requirements for our new banknotes which has enabled the bank to make informed decisions in designed layout, printing, distribution, withdrawal and eventual destruction. in the case of polymer banknotes, they are actually recycled into pot plants, wheel barrows, car bumpers / fenders. with these few remarks, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to introduce the new series k20 banknote in commemoration of the 34th anniversary of bank of papua new guinea, and to join the family of banknotes depicting the parliament theme. the new k20 becomes legal tender on monday, 5 november 2007 and they will be used side by side with the existing k20 notes until they are phased out over time. thank you and god bless.