economic backdrop that makes such a venture that we are celebrating today extremely encouraging. we certainly need more investment such as this. i recall discussing this investment with colonial in 2005 and i was pleased that in september that year, colonial went ahead and invested considerably to re - establish the business of padarath poultry enterprises limited ( ppel ). colonial has gained full control of rooster poultry. reflecting its confidence in the business, between september 2006 and today, colonial has invested additional funds in the project. one of the major parts of this investment has been the re - establishment of breeder and rearing farms to produce local fertile eggs rather than importing such eggs. these farms are now on stream and the business is experiencing a progressive reduction in the volume of imported eggs. this would certainly help our balance of payments. i found the partnership with grower program very interesting. i understand that the growing of broiler chickens combines well with cane farming and virtually all of the growers contracted are also cane growers. i have been informed that already 12 contract growers have taken up the opportunity to join poultry rooster ’ s developments and more are in the process of building sheds. at least 6 more are planned for placement prior to end of december 2007. this is an excellent model in small and micro finance that works. the resurrection and further capacity building has resulted in the direct employment of over 180 people in the ba area, and that does not include the additional employment available through contract growers. i found the details of this investment very interesting. the rearing farm in tavarau is where the new facilities are capable of producing 4 flocks per annum in 4 sheds. after 18 weeks, the birds are transferred to the breeding farm at qalitu where they lay fertile eggs that are transferred to the hatchery in lautoka. the ba farm has 18 sheds and the general processing plant. one of the largest projects undertaken was the building of a large 250 ton holding freezer, and a six months road and drainage upgrade. a new rendering plant has been commissioned as well as an environmentally appropriate water waste system. at the suva depot in vatuwaqa, a new holding freezer to facilitate daily delivery to poultry rooster ’ s customers in suva and surrounding areas. i am told that the sales team now enjoy the use of updated freezer trucks. this investment has come with new it infrastructure, capacity building, development of ohs requirement and commencement of international accreditation. the outcome of this investment program

barry whiteside : bank south pacific group expansion in fiji opening address by mr barry whiteside, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, on the occasion of the rebranding of dominion house to bsp life centre, the opening of the bsp life ’ s customer service centre, and the opening of the bsp ’ s thomson street branch, suva, 4 october 2012. * * * his excellency, the president, rau epeli nailatikau the first lady, adi koila nailatikau mr kevin mccarthy, bsp fiji country manager mr malakai naiyaga, managing director, bsp life limited board members of bsp life limited and bank south pacific management and staff distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen introductory comments bula vinaka and a very good evening to you all. i wish to thank kevin and malakai for their kind invitation to yet another significant event in the relatively short history of bsp ’ s operations in fiji. it is indeed a privilege to be here to support your development initiatives and i welcome your ongoing rebranding & refurbishment programme in fiji. it definitely is another sign of the bsp group wishing to further stamp its mark as a major player in the market and is a real vote of confidence for fiji ’ s economy and our domestic financial system. the bsp fiji group we are actually here today to celebrate three different milestones : ( i ) the re - branding of this dominion house complex to bsp life centre ; ( ii ) the opening of bsp life ’ s customer service centre ; and ( iii ) the renaming of the refurbished bank operations to bsp thomson street branch. the bsp fiji arm of the group has an impressive pedigree. it is a union of two prominent fijian financial institutions, colonial fiji life limited and colonial national bank, which were acquired by bsp in december 2009. colonial fiji life limited, which used to be known as colonial mutual life assurance society ( or more simply as just cmla to us older folk ), was founded in melbourne in 1873, and almost simultaneously opened offices in several other centers in australia. a branch office was opened in fiji in 1876 and i understand that this was the first overseas branch of colonial mutual, before the company opened up in new zealand and south africa in 1883, and expanded into great britain and ireland in 1886. the company officially demutualised in 1996 after acquiring blue shield ( pacific ) limited in 1991. the colonial business was domesticated in