investments. • these reforms will provide incomes to our rural communities. • reforms will provide our grandchildren with more employment opportunities when they leave school. • and improve the standards of living of all our people. • on the whole, these reforms will provide the basis for “ growing a sustainable economy for our future ”. i fully share these views of the minister for finance. for the private sector, reforms is not only a word for the public sector. undertaking organizational reforms at the micro or firm level is necessary. learning new and more efficient ways of using existing technology can result in lower unit costs. better working conditions and training are essential. considering the significant influence of industrial relations in the productivity of the work force, i am hopeful that all tripartite parties including the trade unions will realise the win - win potential of promoting productivity in the work place. while i agree that industrial action is the right of workers, the cost of such actions to everyone including the workers themselves must be clearly identified and factored into people ’ s choices. it is therefore important that the partnership between government, employers and workers is strengthened further in fiji bearing in mind that at the end of the day our goals are mutual. what if we do not raise productivity? on a macro level, we will fail to realize our gdp growth potential let alone reach our growth target. this means there will be fewer jobs available for many of our children and grandchildren. this means more unemployment, and less income. poverty will rise leading to social problems. eventually, everyone pays for the low productivity as we are already doing. but unfortunately, the burden of that cost will be borne more by low - income earners and the poor in our communities. they are the most vulnerable. they are the first to go in a job redundancy situation and the little asset they have are not usually protected from inflation. in addition, as consumers they will again face higher prices. concluding comments is higher productivity going to solve all our problems? definitely not. but it will go a long way in removing efficiencies in all levels of the economy. this efficiency will have significant favourable ramifications throughout the economy. and in fijis case of low long - term growth potential, higher productivity will launch us to a high growth orbit. my guess is that if we raise productivity growth by one percent, our growth potential will rise by two percent. that will make a lot of difference to everyone. raising productivity is not the responsibility of tpaf or government only

barry whiteside : regulation and supervision of non - bank microfinance institutions opening speech by mr barry whiteside, acting governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the regional off - site & on - site technical workshop on non bank microfinance institutions, suva, 12 – 14 april 2011. * * * my fellow governors, mr. denton rarawa ( cbsi ) and mr. loi bakani ( bpng ) central bank representatives from the region mr. tillman bruett, regional financial inclusion advisor and project manager, pacific financial inclusion programme mr deva de silva, senior operations officer, international finance corporation workshop facilitators mr. mark flaming and dr. mohamed nasir fellow colleagues from the reserve bank of fiji ladies and gentlemen introductory remarks bula vinaka to you all. it is with great pleasure that i welcome you all to suva for the first regional technical workshop on regulation and supervision of non bank microfinance institutions. it is an honor to help host this very important workshop that brings together regulators from around the region who are interested in the microfinance and financial inclusion agenda. microfinance and financial inclusion have become very topical issues on the global agenda, and a priority in many developing countries. it has been acknowledged that inclusive financial systems, where people regardless of income level, have easy access to various financial services, are critical for a country ’ s sustainable long term economic growth. in the region and in our individual countries we can attest that there are still significant numbers of our people excluded from basic financial services. in this regard, our active role in financial systems regulation, reform and policy development is important to set the scene and successfully implant the microfinance and financial inclusion agenda in our countries. an important element of inclusive finance is the institutions directly involved in extending financial services to the financially excluded. most of these institutions may operate outside the boundaries of central banks ’ regulatory and supervisory scope. in this workshop you will get to learn and devise practical approaches and methods that can be designed and adopted to effectively regulate such institutions. i wish to acknowledge the support and funding of the alliance for financial inclusion ( afi ), the pacific financial inclusion programme ( pfip ) and the international finance corporation ( ifc ), whose kind assistance have made this regional workshop possible. regulation and supervision of fiji ’ s financial system in fiji, the reserve bank is responsible for regulating and supervising the local financial system. this consists of the banking, insurance,