is now one of our top five trading partners. in september last year, the fijian government signed three agreements with the people ’ s republic of china to expand economic and technological cooperation and offer concessional loans for infrastructure projects. anz ’ s rmb currency exchange & benefits to fiji today ’ s launch of the rmb currency exchange is therefore timely and a step in the right direction for fiji. anz bank ’ s new facility will enable trade and investment between fiji and china to be directly settled in rmb. i have been informed that in this first phase of the rollout, customers will be able to negotiate spot fx rates and forward rates for hedging purposes. i also note that over the next 6 months anz will introduce further rmb - denominated products such as trade finance instruments ( including letters of credit ) and rmb deposit accounts. we at the reserve bank are excited by this initiative for a number of reasons. first, the rmb trading platform will allow local businesses an opportunity to negotiate improved commercial terms as chinese suppliers who currently invoice in us dollars will no longer need to build in a fx margin. both fiji businesses and consumers should benefit from the removal of the extra conversion costs associated with denominating transactions in us dollars. secondly, fiji businesses can now access a wider pool of mainland suppliers as we will now have the flexibility to pay in their local currency. the third possible benefit is that chinese investors into fiji can now convert rmb directly into fiji dollars. this new initiative will also greatly assist government and statutory corporations that have rmb denominated loans to make repayments in a more straight forward and cost effective way without first converting to us dollars. finally, as you are all aware, fiji ’ s exchange rate is pegged to our five major trading partners ’ currencies. even though china is now one of the top five trading partner countries, its currency is still not part of our exchange rate basket as almost all trade with china is currently denominated in us dollars. however, with the introduction of this trading platform and likely increased trade settlement using the rmb, there is the strong possibility of the chinese currency being part of the fiji dollar basket in the not too distant future. bis central bankers ’ speeches economic update ladies and gentlemen, the reserve bank remains bullish on our economic prospects and supports the notion underpinning the 2013 national budget that the fundamentals are being laid and the best is yet to come. throughout 2012

barry whiteside : fiji ’ s chinese renminbi trading platform address by mr barry whiteside, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the launch of anz fiji ’ s chinese renminbi trading platform, suva, 25 february 2013. * * * salutation h. e. huang yong ( ambassador of the peoples republic of china ) mr vishnu mohan ( anz bank, chief executive officer pacific & fiji ) mr li - gang liu ( anz chief economist, greater china ) distinguished guests management and staff of anz bank ladies and gentlemen good evening and a belated gong xi fai chai ( happy chinese new year ). introductory remarks let me first thank mr mohan for the kind invitation to officiate at this launch of your renminbi ( rmb ) trading platform. this is another milestone event for fiji and indeed for the pacific, as anz will be the first commercial bank in our region to offer rmb transfers. i am told that following the fiji rollout a similar process will be facilitated for anz papua new guinea, vanuatu and the solomon islands. we have been closely following the developments on the rmb internationalisation and it has now come to our shores. we also have a special interest in the rmb as china is now our fifth largest trading partner, having recently dislodged japan from that position. deregulation of the financial system and new products i can recall the reserve bank initially embarking on a path towards deregulating the financial system in the early 1980s to encourage innovation and make the market more efficient. as such, we always welcomed the introduction of new financial products and services into the market as well as new players, provided they met our requirements. the rapid global technological advancements over the last decade continue and we do not intend to be left too far behind. today ’ s event and launch is one more example of one of our long time financial players maintaining its pace of innovation. more and more services and products are now being made available to make banking efficient and more accessible to the public. in fiji we have seen the introduction of atms, eftpos, phone banking, internet banking, sms banking, fijiclear or real time settlements and foreign exchange hedging to name just a few services. some innovations are more visible than others. we of course take all these in our stride and often wonder how we ever managed without them. the horror is that we are getting close to the day when we will