is how most people think of it, and my story about globalization and value chains clearly envisioned a complex product, like a car or a smartphone. tangible goods also include products like oil, nickel, canola, pork or lumber. we sell over $ 500 billion in merchandise to the world each year. natural resources and agriculture will always be an important base for our economy, as the folks here today from the mining sector know full well. despite recent difficulties, energy products remain our number one export category, at over $ 80 billion per year. we can continue to find new customers for these products and grow those businesses over time. but, as we just saw, economies are constantly evolving. growth in canada ’ s economy, which was based on trade in natural resources in its early years, is now driven mainly by service industries. roughly 80 per cent of canadians are now employed in services, and trade in services has been growing at a much faster pace than goods. today, we sell about $ 120 billion per year in services to the world. for example, canada is a world leader in the mining services sector, with almost 4, 000 companies providing engineering, environmental and other professional services. these categories had exports worth about $ 12 billion last year. canada has long been an important exporter of financial services — last year these totalled about $ 13 billion and supported many wellpaying jobs in canada. tourism exports are worth around $ 25 billion per year. this category includes exports of education services to visiting students — valued at about $ 8 billion annually. and on the cutting edge, canada is becoming known as a global heavyweight in video games, employing more than 21, 000 canadians, with above - average salaries. many service sectors saw exports growing at near double - digit rates or faster, including financial services, the telecom, computer and information sector, intellectual property and tourism. as large as these numbers sound, services trade is difficult to track and probably underestimated. for example, many manufactured products include a large services component that is buried in the price. by some estimates, as much as 30 per cent of the value of goods exports is actually created through services. consider a smartphone. the parts and labour needed to assemble it might constitute less than half of what the consumer will eventually pay for it. most of the difference represents the cost of all the software that is loaded on the phone. here is another example. many companies today purchase back - office computing services on the cloud. previously, a company

barry whiteside : the fiji economy speech by mr barry whiteside, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the dfk australia new zealand annual partners conference, suva, 26 may 2016. * * * the chairman, dfk australia new zealand, mr stephen bushell vice president dfk asia pacific, mr navin patel delegates ladies and gentlemen bula vinaka and warm greetings to you all! it is my pleasure this morning to share with you some recent developments and our outlook for the fiji economy. but before i do so, i would like to especially thank you for choosing our beautiful country as the venue for your annual meeting! you are part of a growing mice market, the niche tourism speak for “ meetings, incentives, conferences and events ”, which never ceases to amaze me in terms of its growth. what could be better than mixing a little business with a lot of fun and relaxation! i have noted from your program that you have set aside some down - time to sample what we have to offer, which is excellent! if you want your golf game to be really challenged then you should try the natadola course! i assure you that you would need to travel far to find better scenery. whatever you do, spend as much as you can!! that ’ s my little spiel for tourism, now to the business at hand. introduction every month the reserve bank reviews the performance and prospects of the fiji economy to assess what impact recent developments would have on our key monetary policy objectives of maintaining low inflation and adequate foreign reserves. these developments may or may not warrant changes in policy depending on our outlook for macroeconomic and financial stability at the time. given fiji ’ s small size and associated vulnerabilities as a small island developing state, as well as its dependence on the world economy 1, our economic performance is impacted by developments both domestically and globally, particularly in our major trading partner economies. our latest assessments, as you would expect, have considered the economic impacts from the recent natural disasters, the consequential reconstruction and rebuilding activities postdisaster, as well as the ongoing slowdown in the global economy. external risks to our growth outlook are largely associated with a bumpy transition in china ’ s economy, financial market turbulence and sharp movements in asset and commodity prices which, if realized, would impact us mainly indirectly through our trading partners, including australia and new zealand. domestic risks are mostly related to our susceptibility to natural catastrophes