justified ( “ act or explain ” mechanism ). 6. reforming central bank governance after the fall of communism i have always been of the opinion that one cannot truly understand the present or have a glimpse into the future without knowing the past and learning its lessons. these lessons begin with the transition from a monetary authority in a command economy to a modern central bank operating in a market economy, an experience that is, for sure, familiar to many of us present here – i believe half of the central banks in this constituency, including romania ’ s, are “ new kids on the block ”. of course, there are different stages of development in terms of institutional framework. some central banks are presently undergoing the process of shaping and consolidating their bis central bankers ’ speeches governance, an endeavor intended to transform them into modern monetary authorities. and, believe me, i know from experience how complicated such a process can be! in the early nineties, when i took over as governor of the national bank of romania, a tremendous effort was needed to put into practice the transition from a monobank - type system to a two - tier system. it was by no means a simple task to reform an institution that had operated in the context of centralised planning of the entire economic activity and to separate commercial banking operations from central bank operations, which remained the responsibility of the nbr. the new nbr only counted less than 5 percent of the former central bank employees, most of them in the cash management and accounting units! therefore, we had to build from scratch several departments that are key to the functioning of a modern central bank, such as monetary policy, economic research, banking supervision and regulation... fortunately, the nbr was given a helping hand in improving its governance structure when it needed it the most. just to give two examples, banking supervision was set up at the nbr with the extremely useful support of de nederlandsche bank and the forex market was put in place with the assistance from the central bank of belgium. we are extremely grateful to both institutions for their generous support. like they say, what goes around, comes around – it is now our turn to share our experience. i am glad to say that the nbr – in a consortium with de nederlandsche bank – has been involved since june 2015 in a twinning project dedicated to the national bank of moldova, the nbr providing expertise in the areas of regulation and authorisation, supervision, financial stability and human resources.

savenaca narube : microfinance, the economy and challenges in fiji keynote address by mr savenaca narube, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the national micro, small & medium enterprise ( msme ) forum, lami, suva, 22 may 2008. * * * ms. banuve kaumaitotoya, permanent secretary for industry, tourism, trade & communications ; mr. josefa serulagilagi, chairman, national centre for small & micro enterprise development board ( and other board members ) ; mr. savenaca nacanaitaba, ceo, national centre ladies and gentlemen introductory comments it is indeed a great pleasure for me to participate in today ’ s forum. at the outset, let me commend the national centre for small and micro enterprise development for holding such an important national forum and for looking at such a critical issue as a national strategy for growing sustainable micro, small & medium enterprises, or msmes. there is no doubt of the need for such a strategy. today ’ s forum is a very important means to again emphasise to the public the huge contribution msmes make, or can make, towards fiji ’ s economy and prospects. such a forum also allows us to put together ideas on how best we can promote the development of such an important sector of our country. i became closely involved in microfinance many years ago. we did a lot of preparatory and research work at the reserve bank. these ideas remained with me when i moved to the ministry of finance where we convened the first national conference on microfinance. this led to the establishment of the microfinance unit at the ministry of finance which was the forerunner of the national centre. the unit was guided by an advisory board made up of mostly practitioners in the field and the private sector. our major objective was to develop a microfinance model that could be easily replicated across the country. one of the key issues that we had to answer was : what is the role of government? should it or its agency actually lend money directly to borrowers? most of us felt that government should resist this temptation and go through microfinance institutions or mfis. i still prescribe to this view because mfis are on the ground and know their customers. governments seldom do. when news of the establishment of this microfinance unit spread, i began to notice long lines outside their office. rather unpleasantly we had to correct to them