commercial banks from october 13 of this year. let me put this process in its bigger prospective. we decided back in 2002 to review our entire currency – both notes and coins. we decided to work on the notes first and this culminated last year when we issued the new currency banknotes including the one hundred dollar note. i am glad to say that the new paper currency has been widely accepted by the people of fiji. the use of the one hundred dollar bill was much more rapid than the fifty dollar bill when it was first introduced. today marks the completion of the whole currency review with the launch of the new series of coins. the entire journey has taken us about 7 years. we are pleased with the results so far. i am confident that the country will also accept the new coins that we are launching today. unlike banknotes, changing our coins is a much more complex process. the logistical issues are many. for instance, when we stop issuing the one and two cents, there was a rush to return these coins to the commercial banks even though they are still legal tender. we have, up to now, collected around 120 tons of one and two cents. this is a lot of weight to transport. it also requires a lot of space to store 120 tons of coins. as we collect more old coins, these logistics will intensify. cabinet approval i wish to assure everyone that we have obtained the necessary approval under the law. under the reserve bank of fiji act, only the approval of the minister for finance is required before we can change our currency either they be notes or coins. we have kept the minister and cabinet fully informed of the progress throughout this currency review. we sought and obtained cabinet ’ s approval of the new coins and the cessation of the one and two cents on 11 march 2008. minting in march this year, the board awarded the tender to the royal canadian mint for the production of a five year supply of our new coins. the contract is valued at approximately 7. 8 million fiji dollars ( us $ 4. 2 million ). royal canadian mint has minted fiji coins in the past and is recognised as one of the leading and innovative mints in the world. we are extremely happy to continue this association with the royal canadian mint. how much will it save fiji? our new coins will be on average nine ( 9 ) percent smaller, forty three ( 43 ) percent lighter, and twenty one ( 21 ) percent thinner. how much savings will we get from

. the first is that minting coins as you saw in the video is a complicated and expansive process. second, as you would imagine, the return from counterfeiting coins are pretty small. but interestingly these have not stopped some from setting up bogus minting presses in the past. why are we changing coins now? you may ask : why are we then changing our coins now? let me explain : • firstly, prices of base metals used in coin production have increased dramatically. this increase has made central banks change the metal composition of coins. this has significantly reduced the cost of minting them. • secondly, technology has allowed innovative minting techniques to make more efficient use of base metals. again, this has reduced costs. • thirdly, we can reduce the size of the coins. many countries have done this. smaller and lighter coins are much cheaper to mint. not only that, the handling costs are also reduced. so, we are changing our coins basically to reduce the cost of minting and handling. these costs continue to increase as demand for cash continues to rise. the cashless society is yet to fully eventuate and i think that it will not do so for some time yet. why are we dropping the one and two cent coins? we have taken the opportunity to also review the structure of our coins. in doing so, we are dropping the one and two cents. this is because of the following reasons : • one, the value of lower denomination coins like the one and two cents have dropped significantly. this is because of the increase in the prices of goods and services. as a result, the one and two cent coins do not circulate well. people simply leave them in jars, drawers and so forth. it therefore makes good sense to stop minting them. • two, the cost of minting the lower denomination coins are more than their face value. for instance, the cost of minting the one cent coin is four times its face value even with cheaper metal composition. so, while these coins are lying idle in jars and drawers, we spend a lot of money minting new ones. this is a clear waste of public funds. • third, businesses and banks continue to incur higher cost in handling and transporting fresh supplies of these coins year in and year out. a significant change such as this always incites people ’ s concerns. this is understandable. so let me take this opportunity to answer some concerns on the cessation of