Address by Fiji Development Bank’ s[FDB] Board Chairman, Mr Robert Lyon, at the Golden Jubilee Client Cocktail- West

 

Our Chief Guest, Resident Magistrate Mr Mosese Naivalu;

FDB Board of Directors;

Management and Staff;

Our Valued Clients, and

Distinguished Guests.

 

Bula Vinaka, ladies and gentlemen, and a very good evening to you all.

It is my great pleasure to welcome you all. On behalf of the FDB family, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to our Chief Guest, Resident Magistrate Mr Mosese Naivalu for joining in our celebrations– Thank you RM for accepting our invitation.

I welcome our customers who have been business Partners in Progress for many years, including Arjun Naidu, a sugarcane farmer from Rakiraki and Mohammed Yakub Khan of Lautoka. Let us put our hands together for our clients, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you all for joining us at the Fiji Development Bank’s Golden Jubilee Client Cocktail –West.

On Friday, the 28th of July Hon. Prime Minister of Fiji launched FDB’s 50th anniversary celebrations at a grand function at the GPH in Suva. At the launch, the Prime Minister unveiled our golden jubilee logo and the anniversary theme “Development for Fijians Across Generations” and launched the Bank’s three-year Strategic Plan 2018-2020.

A new strategic course is being set, ladies and gentlemen, as the Bank celebrates its 50^th year of operations since establishment in 1967, transitioning from the Agricultural and Industrial Loans Board which was established 16 years earlier when development banking started in Fiji.

I proudly note that at the launch the Prime Minister acknowledged FDB as standing true to its tagline as a Partner in Progress to the government and that the development bank has played a major role in making Fiji the modern, dynamic island economy that it is today.

Indeed, FDB has emerged as a contributor to the nation’s vision for development, by uplifting Fijian businesses through support for entrepreneurs at the grassroots level and helping bigger players expand in regional and international markets.

Such validation from the head of government is motivating and further reinforces the Bank’s vision of being a dynamic financial service provider leading to the development of Fijians and the Fijian economy.

With more and more Fijians becoming eager to join the formal financial sector, the Prime Minister also acknowledged that FDB has been responsive to meeting the national financial inclusion agenda.

We are truly being responsive. We are forging ahead with the ambitious goal of promoting financial inclusion across Fijian societies and strategically funding development projects with the aim of moving forward to boost the resilience of the Fijian economy and investments climate-proof infrastructure.

In order to live up to such a determined and strongly cemented development role expectation, FDB has been fine-tuning its internal policies and strategies to deliver as a leading financial development institution.

Our new strategic plan is intended to assist the Bank in attaining its true status through greater mobilization of resources and enhancing its capacity to dispense development financing through diversified loan portfolios of short, medium and long-term funding instruments.

Ladies and gentlemen, to complement with the first year of operations under the new strategic plan, the Bank has also developed an inclusive 50 Year Anniversary Communications Strategy and Marketing Plan to celebrate, recognise and add-value.

Celebrate our journey of 50 years.

To recognise our partnership with our clients and stakeholders of over half a century and their development.

And to add-value to the Bank’s mandate and performance output by fine-tuning our policies and internal structuring related to business relationships and community relations.

To achieve the three core objectives mentioned, I am proud to announce that FDB is confidently embracing technological advancement for communicating key messages about the role of the Bank and its impact on the lives of the Fijian people and for increasing its outreach and adopting aggressive marketing and visibility strategies.

One such strategic tool is our website, ladies and gentlemen.

And, we are today launching our revamped website. Revamped to be more user friendly, and most importantly more interactive than ever before. It hosts information that existing and new clients can access from the comfort of their homes through their mobile phones and desktop computers.

With such profound connectivity tool, FDB is reaching out to Fijians and will contribute towards bridging the connectivity gap when it comes to the question of financial inclusion.

An informed and financially literate community is better positioned and empowered to make informed decisions about finances.

A fisherman out at sea and a farmer out in the field can now access the FDB website on their mobile phones and find out the loan requirements for purchasing equipment.

How empowering is that ladies and gentlemen?

As we embarked on this ambitious journey of positioning the development bank as a significant facilitator of environmentally sustainable development, we understand well the role that information and advocacy plays in helping us achieve our targets.

As we move forward, FDB will continue to empower and develop Fijians as it has been doing so for 50 years now.

We look forward to introducing more exciting strategic tools and loan products for our clients, our valued partners in progress.

Wish you all a wonderful evening and thank you once again for joining us in celebrating our 50^th anniversary.

 

Thank you.

 

–ENDS–