Acting Prime Minister Afioga Fiame Naomi Keynote Address 11th Businesswomen of the Year Awards, 9th December 2011.

Please find the transcript of the keynote address of Acting Prime Minister Afioga Fiame Naomi below:

Rev. Faafouina
President of SPBD, Mr Greg Casagrande
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. I am honored to have been invited to be a key speaker at the 11th Businesswomen of the year Awards 2011.It is encouraging when government witnesses that the efforts of businesswomen and village groups actively committed and continuously utilizing available opportunities provided by the SPBD are recognized at occasions such as this. The continued philosophy of SPBD, of lending that is based on respect for each individual’s innate human ingenuity, drive and self-esteem especially in such times of economic hardship around the world, demonstrates the genuine commitment of the organization in assisting our people to have access to the means by which to improve quality of life and especially for the women.

2. Women play an essential role in society; this can be seen right from the home to the international level. Though women are often known to be hardworking, talented and committed, the challenge is that only few women are empowered. The majority continue to be trapped in the low income category with worrying levels of political, social and human development.

3. The empowering of women is a means of solving many social-economic and problems. The rise of incidents of violence against women is of great concern. Whilst there are many causes for this problem, economic hardships faced by families are often the key factor in family disputes. Enabling women to become more financially secure should contribute to more harmonious domestic relations. The initiative by SPBD is a commendable initiative that ought to be followed by other Micro-finance instituions.

4.The government has and continues to prioritize and support initiatives to facilitate the development of our economy and afford better quality lives to our citizens. Indeed, in Samoa’s Development Strategy 2008-2012, Government places a lot of emphasis on providing an enabling environment to permit the prosperity of creative business support programmes.This is mainly through among other things;
• Modernization of the legal framework for lending and debt collection with the passage and implementation of a Personal Property Securities Act (PPSA) and accompanying regulations. This Act is meant to allow for the pledging of moveable property as security for lending by companies and individuals, simplify and speed up, the debt collection process, which is presently prolonged and costly.
• Creating an enabling environment to facilitate establishment and operation of microfinance institutions such as the South Pacific development Foundation an organization that is using very practical means to enhance training and financial access for our citizens.
• Simplification of tax processes. Legislative amendments have been drafted to allow for income tax self assessment, and accompanied by information systems development in the Ministry of Revenue, information dissemination and tax payer training, all supported by our other development partners such as AUSAID funded institutional strengthening programme.
• Establishment and operation of a Samoa Private Sector Contestable Fund thus harmonizing development partner funding support for private sector development.

5. Plans are also underway in the next planning period upon the expiry of the SDS, 2008-2012, through effective implementation of specific sector-plans to strengthen government’s support in providing an even better enabling environment for the development and prosperity of our citizens.

6. Today’s occasion also marks milestones achieved by SPBD such as the death benefit insurances which reduces impact of funeral expenses “falavaelave”,inspiration scheme training conducted in partnership with Body shop Australia and Wise Foundation, Establishment of Social Performance Management System in Partnership with the European Community and a high monthly disbursement of 1.049 million tala to 722 SPBD clients.

7. It is also a day to recognize positive steps made by SPBD in working towards the implementation of the Organization’s vision,of “creating a network of micro-enterprise development organizations in the South-Pacific and neighbouring regions to empower women through financial support and economic development to help lift themselves and their families permanently out of poverty and improve self esteem” and recognize those individuals and businesses that have excelled in utilizing the opportunities SPBD offers to the benefit of their businesses and uplifting of their economic livelihoods.

8. This should not only be encouragement to other groups to aspire for similar recognition and also utilize available opportunities in existence for a better quality life but also to those recognized today to keep up the commitment and continue utilsing available financing opportunities for productive and economically viable innovations.

Conclusion
Let me conclude by thanking the President of SPBD, Mr Greg Casagrande and the management of SPBD for the hard work undertaken this year and your vision in sustaining this project for the good of our people. I also wish to thank clients for your belief in the opportunities offered by SPBD and last but not least to those who will receive Awards today, Congratulations

Soifua