barry whiteside : promoting and supporting greater financial inclusion in fiji address by mr barry whiteside, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the launch of the inaugural microfinance awards, suva, 2 september 2013. * * * national financial inclusion taskforce members microfinance working group members our co - sponsors of the microfinance awards : life insurance corporation of india and the pacific financial inclusion programme ladies and gentlemen introductory comments good morning and bula vinaka to you all. it is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to the launch of the first national microfinance awards. the decision to host a microfinance awards this year is something that we at the reserve bank have been contemplating for some time. we believe that greater recognition needs to be given to those special individuals and micro enterprises that play a critical role in alleviating poverty, providing employment and income to many needy families, particularly those living below the poverty line. they are also an important component and complement the national efforts to promote and support greater financial inclusion. the microfinance awards are an initiative of the national financial inclusion taskforce. the national financial inclusion taskforce, ladies and gentlemen, is a national committee that was set up in 2010 and represents stakeholders from the public and private sector, the donor agencies, micro finance institutions and ngos, with the goal of extending financial services to 150, 000 unbanked people by the year 2014. i am pleased to report that as of 30 june 2013 we have now achieved 87 percent of this target. the nfit has three working groups that help achieve its objective, namely the ; financial literacy working group, statistics working group and the microfinance working group. the purpose of us having these awards is to : • promote the micro enterprise sector ; • encourage local value adding of our resources ; • to encourage self - employment ; and, most importantly • to recognize successful, innovative and creative micro entrepreneurs at a national level. microfinance awards the inaugural microfinance awards include 3 main categories : 1. best microfinance entrepreneur – individual ; 2. best microfinance entrepreneur – partnership ; and 3. best microfinance service provider. these awards include enterprises with a total turnover of less than $ 30, 000 per annum. bis central bankers ’ speeches development front in the micro sector through these awards we hope that more people, young and old, rural and urban dwellers, will be encouraged to find opportunities for themselves and their families by starting a business.

a discussion of the interaction of monetary and macroprudential policies. see kenneth r. french, martin n. baily, john y. campbell, john h. cochrane, douglas w. diamond, darrell duffie, anil k kashyap, frederic s. mishkin, raghuram g. rajan, david s. scharfstein, robert j. shiller, hyun song shin, matthew j. slaughter, jeremy c. stein, and rene m. stulz ( 2010 ), the squam lake report : fixing the financial system ( princeton : princeton university press ). see robert a. mundell ( 1962 ), “ appropriate use of monetary and fiscal policy for internal and external stability ”, in international monetary fund staff papers, vol. 9 ( 1 ) ( basingstoke, england : palgrave macmillan ), pp. 70 – 79. challenges it ’ s important to be realistic about the challenges that lie ahead. by its nature, policy designed to manage systemic risk fights dangers that may never lead to crises. we may sometimes be like the boy who cried, “ wolf! ” – and the villagers may not be pleased about being rousted from their beds. right now, we are still suffering from the shock of an epic financial disaster. the climate for macroprudential policymaking is relatively favorable. but memories will fade, as they always have before, and future policymakers may face harsh criticism. they will need to make difficult and potentially costly judgment calls, relying on imperfect real - time information. in this regard, it ’ s worth recalling paul samuelson ’ s quip that the stock market has predicted nine of the past five recessions. will future regulators and monetary policymakers be accused of bursting 10 of the past 2 asset bubbles? these dangers are real. but the events we ’ ve recently lived through make it clear that we have no choice but to embark on this road. we ’ ve all been asked, “ didn ’ t you see this mortgage disaster coming? why didn ’ t you do anything about it? ” our task now is to implement intelligent policies to contain future bubbles and credit binges, and to make sure that those that do occur inflict a lot less damage on the economy. next time i hope we can say, “ we did see it coming, and we did something about it. ” thank you very much.