Sustainable Development in the Small States of the South Pacific: Toward a Corporate Social Responsibility for International Banks

Abstract

Sustainable development has been an important but elusive goal for the highly vulnerable small states in the South Pacific. Events such as the current global financial crisis are likely to make this goal more elusive as the generous developed world donors, affected themselves, are compelled to revise the level of their assistance to less developed economies. New, self-dependent strategies and policies are required. Inspired by the expanding finance-growth literature and based on findings that highly profitable and strongly capitalised international banks in the region may not only control finance but may also be contributing to users being ‘involuntarily’ excluded from formal financial sector finance, this paper offers a policy response in the form of corporate social responsibility for international banks in the region. Implications extend to other developing economies.

Keywords: Access to finance, banks, corporate social responsibility, Fiji, Small Island Developing States, South Pacific, sustainable development

JEL Classification: O10