See Anne Case and Angus Deaton, Mortality and Morbidity in the 21st  Century, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Spring 2017, in which they document declining life expectancy for middle-aged, less-educated non-Hispanic whites in the United States since the year 2000. 2 United Nations, World Populations Prospects: Key Findings and Advance Tables, 2015 Revision. 3 Antonin Bergeaud, Gilbert Cette, and Rémy Lecat, Productivity Trends in Advanced Countries between 1890 and  2012, Review of Income and Wealth, Volume 62, Issue 3, pp. 420–44 (September 2016). 4 Robert J. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War,  Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2016. 5 Carlos Carvalho, Andrea Ferrero, and Fernanda Nechio. Demographics and Real Interest Rates: Inspecting the  Mechanism, European Economic Review, Volume 88, pp. 208–26, 2016; Etienne Gagnon, Benjamin K. Johannsen, and David Lopez-Salido. Understanding the New Normal: The Role of Demographics. Finance and Economics Discussion Series, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2016; and Gauti B. Eggertsson, Neil R. Mehrotra, and Jacon A. Robbins, A Model of Secular Stagnation: Theory and Quantitative Evaluation, National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 23093, 2017. 6 Shigeaki Fujiwara, Yuto Iwasaki, Ichiro Muto, Kenji Nishizaki, and Nao Sudo Fujiwara, Developments in the  Natural Rate of Interest in Japan, Bank of Japan Review, October 2016; Kathryn Holston, Thomas Laubach, and John C. Williams, Measure the Natural Rate of Interest: International Trends and Determinants, Journal of International Economics, Volume 108, Supp. 1, pp. S59-S75. (2016).

Mr Chairman, learning from others, some of the obstacles facing the leasing companies, include inability to attract funding and lack of adequate leasing expertise, can be overcome through formation of synergies and partnership with other industry players. I understand in the USA, for example, over 70% of leases are actually written through lease intermediary companies or brokers, who use their specialised skills to structure lease transactions in the best way possible for the benefit of both the lessee and the lease underwriter. Lease syndications and funding partnerships with bigger players should also be encouraged as these help to spread risk and reduce pressures on balance sheets of individual leasing companies. Ladies and Gentlemen, you will agree with me that there is vast untapped potential of leasing activities in this country. There is need to develop this line of business further. A developed leasing sector is characterized by a diverse range of financial services that include factoring and trade finance, term lending, corporate finance and investment advisory services, and corporate restructuring, treasury management as well as traditional leasing activities. But this is not the case in Zambia at  2  BIS Review 17/2007  present. Currently, the leasing sector is restricted primarily to the traditional leasing activities. This seminar has thus come at the right time, as the lessons learnt are vital to complement the Government’s efforts not only to develop the leasing sector, but the financial sector as a whole.