s development strategies. financial literacy and awareness before i close ladies and gentlemen, i would just like to highlight the importance of financial awareness and literacy in our efforts towards extending financial services outreach. the financial literacy working group established through the nfit is working with stakeholders in developing appropriate strategies in this regard. these include : a. integrating financial education into the school curriculum from primary to secondary levels. b. conducting a baseline study on financial competencies of households, to be undertaken in august this year. this will be used to assess and develop appropriate financial education programs for fijian households. c. promoting financial literacy – through public awareness programs and a green ribbon campaign at the upcoming hibiscus festival. i have already mentioned the reserve bank is planning to host microfinance entrepreneurs and financial services providers utilizing a “ microfinance village ” concept at the hibiscus festival. conclusion ladies and gentlemen, for a number of years the reserve bank has been advocating the development of fiji ’ s financial services sector and key to this is the extension of financial services to the under - served or the unbanked. we have taken on the challenge of promoting financial inclusion in fiji and ensuring a financial system geared towards supporting this critical area. our intention is to see the poor, or those considered unbankable, being provided access to savings and credit facilities that will ultimately help in reducing poverty. the key areas that i have highlighted may have only provided the platform for financial inclusiveness and prosperity. what the reserve bank would like to see is the on - going support of all key stakeholders towards these development initiatives. as i have mentioned earlier, rbf policies and strategies alone will not be enough – the financial institutions, ngos, donors, government and all other stakeholders need to play a part. the challenge for us here today is to open ourselves to change. thank you.

not necessarily be part of rbf ’ s core mandates. the question of whether such a role should be played by the rbf or someone else is not something that we should debate about. i am of the view that in a small and open island economy like ours, the central bank can play a more influential development role aside from its traditional monetary policy role to influence prices and ensuring we have adequate reserves to pay for our foreign bills. the challenge is in finding the right balance in our interventions that will complement the efforts of others, including government. more often than not, the reserve bank prefers to play a facilitating and supporting role while encouraging other stakeholders, such as the banks, to come to the party. however there have been times where a leadership role has been required, at least to start the ball rolling. 1. microfinance and greater financial inclusion more recently the reserve bank has taken on an active role in formulating policies and strategies aimed at increasing outreach of financial services to the unbanked or the underserved population. a new department, titled the financial system development and compliance ( fsdc ) group, was set up in the bank in april 2009 to drive these initiatives. i am pleased to announce that through this new group, the reserve bank has been able to make good progress in areas of microfinance and financial inclusion. national microfinance workshop in november 2009, the reserve bank, in collaboration with the pacific financial inclusion programme ( pfip ), successfully organised a national microfinance and financial inclusion workshop. our objective was to harness the strengths and efforts of all the players in the industry towards building a sustainable way forward for microfinance in general and financial inclusion in particular. the workshop provided a consultative forum for stakeholders to review and develop a medium term strategy on the way forward for greater financial inclusion in fiji. at the end of the workshop, the strategic focus arrived at a common vision of “ … reaching at least 150, 000 unbanked citizens through a coordinated national effort by the year 2014. ” the reserve bank was assigned a lead driving role by all those present, which we readily agreed to take up. we did not want another workshop where lots of brilliant ideas are raised, but quickly fade once everyone went back to the comfort of their respective offices, as so often happens in fiji. in fact all the stakeholders were excited to move things forward. i. nfit the first major outcome of the workshop was the set up of a national financial inclusion