sada reddy : consumer - related issues in financial services opening speech by mr sada reddy, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the world consumer rights day celebration, suva, 13 april 2010. * * * honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen, a very good morning to you all. it gives me great pleasure to be here this morning to grace the opening of the world consumer rights day celebration. this month, consumers international celebrates its 50th birthday since its beginnings in march 1960. at that time, a group of consumer leaders met at the hague and signed papers to create the “ international organization of consumers union ( iocu ) ” giving birth to the global consumer movement. the organizations that signed the formation of the new body had a common desire and that was to help ordinary people make informed buying decisions and get value for their money. since those formative years, the consumer movement has grown from strength to strength. both its membership base and coverage of countries expanded. this, of course, includes the consumer council of fiji. the focus of the consumer movement broadened from its founding principles and today they address issues such as poverty reduction, corporate responsibility, services and sustainable consumption as well as advice on consumer products. i commend the consumers international for its work on consumer advocacy and take this time to wish the movement a happy 50th birthday. theme and implications for consumers the consumers international has chosen the theme “ our money, our rights ”. a theme, i feel is so befitting the times we are living in considering the recent global financial crisis and the continued fall out being felt from the crisis. i therefore wish to talk this morning on a number of issues that embraces this theme, in particular from the point of view of the financial system and our role as the regulator of fiji ’ s financial system. the questions consumers ask are ; this is our money and hence we have the right to its safety and security. this is our money and we have the right to reasonable and cost - effective services. these are important questions that should drive financial institutions behavior in terms of customer service. update on fiji ’ s economy ladies and gentlemen, before i touch on consumer related issues in terms of financial services, let me start by briefly providing an overview of the fiji economy since the time of the global financial crisis. there are now some positive signs emerging that the worst may be over but no doubt, the road to full recovery will be slow and very uncertain. the fiji economy was hit on two fronts

##bread kitchen and many others were once msmes. i am confident that as our small businesses grow they can help raise exports and investment in fiji. they can also help in importsubstitution thereby reducing our imports bill and narrowing the trade deficit. • it creates employment : small businesses are the answer to our unemployment problem. our formal sector cannot absorb all our school leavers – this is the same in all developing countries. the employment growth required for our future can come from the small business sector. rough estimates suggest that close to 60 percent of fiji ’ s labour force is involved in various forms of businesses that fall under the heading of msmes. • it combats poverty : msmes are also a way to combat poverty and can help us achieve our millennium development goals. msmes allow people to help themselves rise above poverty, by supplying the means to provide for basic needs such as education, food, shelter and clothing. smes give people the dignity of working for a living. 3. let me now move on to recent government and rbf policy initiatives to support the msmes over the years, the government and the rbf has put in place various incentives and supportive policies to create a conducive environment for msme activity. as a way to increase the involvement of the financial sector and to enable greater access to finance by micro - entrepreneurs around the country, the rbf in 2010 required all commercial banks to set - up microfinance units at their branches. commercial banks also established agents in rural areas using merchants and post office agents to facilitate finance activity. at the end of 2013, 81 agents were in operation providing basic banking services such as cash withdrawals, deposits and payments. in addition, since 2010, a total of 17 microfinance expos have been held. these expos bring together financial stakeholders that provide financial services, financial literacy training and create more awareness on microfinance activity to those in the surrounding vicinity of the expo. the rbf ’ s import substitution and export finance facility ( iseff ) were set up to improve fiji ’ s bop position by assisting exporters, renewable energy and import substitution businesses to obtain credit at concessional interest rates. currently, the maximum interest rate charged on the facility is 5 % p. a. the bank, from july 2010 to 31 january 2014 approved around $ 54 million under the facility. of this amount, $ 44. 7 million was approved for export finance, around $ 5. 7 million for import substitution businesses