Director, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
International Monetary Fund
Conference on Financial Sector Stability and Development
Apia, Samoa, February 20 - 23, 2001

Honourable Prime Minister Tuilaepa of Samoa, Honourable Ministers and Governors, distinguished delegates and guests, ladies and gentlemen.

Before Honourable Prime Minister Tuilaepa takes the floor to deliver his opening address, allow me to say a few words on behalf of the IMF and PFTAC.

I would like to begin by extending our warm welcome to all of you. As Financial Secretary Hinauri mentioned, this is the second conference we co-host with the Samoa authorities. The first conference was held two years ago here in Apia, on the subject of fiscal reform, transparency, and accountability. At the end of that conference, Honourable Prime Minister Tuilaepa proposed, and other participants concurred, that we should have another conference exactly in two years time, exactly at the same place. That is how the idea of this conference originated, and that is why, in short, we are here this morning.

Having said this, I realise that with the country's Parliamentary elections scheduled in ten days time, this is not exactly the most convenient time for the Prime Minister, and the officials of his government to host a conference. So at the very outset, I would like to thank the Samoan authorities for hosting the conference, and enabling us to be here at this time. I would also like to thank all of you for coming here and participating in the conference, despite your tight schedules.

Ladies and gentlemen, the title of this conference is "Financial Sector Stability and Development", which entails many interesting issues and topics that we can review and discuss in the next two days. And, at this stage, I would like to mention three broad topics:

First, challenges and problems. We can certainly review the challenges and problems that Pacific Island Countries (PICs) face in sustaining financial sector stability and development. There are challenges related to financial sector development and reform. There are also financing and financial problems, and the problems of weak financial institutions, and consequent financial sector instability, all of which keep recurring. As a matter of fact, these problems never seem to go away.

Second, policy efforts to address these challenges and problems - efforts to contain the problems, to prevent them, and more generally, to strengthen financial sectors. In this context, we can, and I believe we should, discuss ongoing international efforts to strengthen financial sectors. These efforts involve, among other things, developing international codes, standards, and best practices, as well as establishing mechanisms to implement them. The objective is to help country authorities, with the help of international standards and related mechanisms, to implement best available policies to strengthen their financial sectors.

The third broad topic on which we should focus our discussion is the PICs response to the international efforts and initiatives I just mentioned. We should discuss how PICs go about in adopting and implementing these international initiatives, so that they can make the best use of them. Various factors unique to PICs, including, most importantly, the limited resources available in implementing initiatives must be considered. There are related issues of how quickly and comprehensively the PICs should move themselves in responding to these initiatives. The issue of policy prioritisation and sequencing follows, as in many other cases.

So ladies and gentlemen, we have many interesting issues and topics to discuss on our agenda. We also have representatives of all PICs as well as of major donor agencies. With the combination of interesting issues and a diversified group of participants, we should have exciting and useful exchange of views. I look forward to a stimulating discussion in the next two days.

Thank you.