our agricultural sector is the result of a combination of factors, including the vulnerability it has to natural disasters, minimal private sector investment, inadequate infrastructure, marketing deficiencies, soaring production costs and the limited access to finance. apart from agriculture, the reserve bank is also committed to help grow the renewable energy sector. at the national level, we are aware that any increase in economic activity means higher energy demand ; a substantial portion of which comes from fossil fuels. fiji imports all its mineral fuels and this dependence on imports has huge implications for our current account. over the five years from 2006 to 2010, the current account deficit averaged around 13. 4 percent of gdp. over the same period, domestic mineral fuel imports accounted for around 25 percent of total retained imports, on average per year. given the hikes and volatility in international crude oil prices, the need to lessen our dependence on mineral fuels is critical. policy development, macro monitoring as well as creating greater public awareness and support for projects involving renewable energy, are thus essential to rein in fiji ’ s high fossil fuel usage and import bill. the associated environmental cost also has a direct impact on the economic well - being of our country. in this regard, investment in renewable and sustainable energy is important to mitigate all the allied risks. ladies and gentlemen, the reserve bank and the government are also promoting local value adding, which basically means using our own local resources where - ever and whenever we can. this also means that we work towards conserving energy and developing and supporting greater use of renewable energy sources such as hydro, solar, biomass, biodiesel and wind farms, where feasible. the reserve bank has been working with various stakeholders in exploring opportunities to incorporate more local value - added content into food and beverages, renewable energy and handicraft to name just a few. the fiji national university ( fnu ) is one of these stakeholders, given its critical role in training a skilled workforce for both the domestic and international markets. bis central bankers ’ speeches in 2010, the reserve bank sponsored a local chef from the fnu for training in malaysia to support and develop innovative new ways of using local foods and produce in our hotel industry, and on resort menus. additionally, in march this year, we sponsored three local chefs to attend the inaugural south pacific food and wine festival in denarau. in the past, this was an area of concern to the bank as a lot of the food used in the tourism industry was imported.

caused equity prices to fall sharply, the cost of short - term credit – where available – to spike upward, and liquidity to dry up in many markets. losses at a large money market mutual fund sparked extensive withdrawals from a number of such funds. a marked increase in the demand for safe assets – a flight to quality – sent the yield on treasury bills down to a few hundredths of a percent. by further reducing asset values and potentially restricting the flow of credit to households and businesses, these developments pose a direct threat to economic growth. the federal reserve took a number of actions to increase liquidity and stabilize markets. notably, to address dollar funding pressures worldwide, we announced a significant expansion of reciprocal currency arrangements with foreign central banks, including an approximate doubling of the existing swap lines with the european central bank and the swiss national bank and the authorization of new swap facilities with the bank of japan, the bank of england, and the bank of canada. we will continue to work closely with colleagues at other central banks to address ongoing liquidity pressures. the federal reserve also announced initiatives to assist money market mutual funds facing heavy redemptions and to increase liquidity in short - term credit markets. despite the efforts of the federal reserve, the treasury, and other agencies, global financial markets remain under extraordinary stress. action by the congress is urgently required to stabilize the situation and avert what otherwise could be very serious consequences for our financial markets and for our economy. in this regard, the federal reserve supports the treasury's proposal to buy illiquid assets from financial institutions. purchasing impaired assets will create liquidity and promote price discovery in the markets for these assets, while reducing investor uncertainty about the current value and prospects of financial institutions. more generally, removing these assets from institutions ’ balance sheets will help to restore confidence in our financial markets and enable banks and other institutions to raise capital and to expand credit to support economic growth. at this juncture, in light of the fast - moving developments in financial markets, it is essential to deal with the crisis at hand. certainly, the shortcomings and weaknesses of our financial markets and regulatory system must be addressed if we are to avoid a repetition of what has transpired in our financial markets over the past year. however, the development of a comprehensive proposal for reform would require careful and extensive analysis that would be difficult to compress into a short legislative timeframe now available. looking forward, the federal reserve is committed to working closely with the congress, the administration