WELCOME SPEECH - CHAIRMAN OF ADFIP
MR FUIMAONO FALEFA LIMA
ADFIP ANNUAL MEETING
26th AUGUST 2007, PORT MORESBY, PNG
Hon. Minister of Finance
ADFIP Colleagues, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I extend very warm greetings to you all, on this occasion of the Opening of the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in the Pacific (ADFIP). It is a great privilege, as Chairman of ADFIP, to welcome our distinguished guests, as well as ADFIP Members to this year’s Meeting in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
I wish to first acknowledge the presence of the Honorable Minister of Finance n the Opening Ceremony.ADFIP do appreciates your making time from our busy schedule, to attend this ceremony. I wish to thank on behalf of ADFIP, our Host National Development Bank Ltd (NDB), for organizing and hosting this years Meeting here in Port Moresby. The ADFIP delegates and guest, are very happy to be here, and are looking forward to the Meeting Program, particularly the field trip to Lae towards the end of the week.
This year’s ADFIP Meeting is focused on the theme “Reforming DFI’s in the Pacific”. Obviously, this theme was proposed and considered appropriate, given the continuing strive by DFI’s to improve its services and governance standards, while remaining sustainable. The continuing changes in the international financial environment require the financing institutions to make appropriate changes, and implement needed reforms, to ensure their products and services are marketable, while remaining sustainable. In some cases, political instability in our region has to some extent, required financial institutions to narrow their operations. Nevertheless, DFI’s must be vigilant of the changing financial environment, and the need to improve their services, by implementing appropriate reforms in their operations.
In the course of this meeting, we will be presented with the recent experiences of the National Development Bank of Papua New Guinea (NDB), in adopting and implementing a number of reforms to help improve its services. The NDB experiences should be of value and benefit to other ADFIP members, who may be reviewing their own operational services, and governance standards. I am sure all delegates and guests are looking forward to NDB presentation.
The process of reforming DFI’s, also require review of existing risk management policies. The importance of this aspect in DFI operation, calls for continuous review, and exchanging experiences among members. ADFIP has invited the Association of DFI’s in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP) secretariat to make a presentation on this topic. I acknowledge the presence of ADFIAP Secretary General in our Meeting, to make the above presentation on Risk Management in the course of our Meeting. This week, our ADFIP Meeting coincides with the Pacific Microfinance Week here in Port Moresby. We welcome this opportunity for our delegates and guests to learn from the experience of this PNG/ADB Microfinance Project, and exchange ideas with the Project sponsors. ADFIP members have been invited to participate in this occasion, and we look forward to this opportunity during the week. I wish to thank the Microfinance Week sponsors for the invitation, and their offer to meet some of the ADFIP Meeting in-country costs in Port Moresby.
While in the Meeting and other events of the week will keep us occupied, we should also try and make time to see other places of interest in Port Moresby. For those of us who will be going to Lae, I assure the field trip would be worthwhile taking.
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