Strategic or industrial goals can also be pursued, such as facilitating the access of domestic firms to new foreign technologies, or more generally bolstering national industries. One such example is provided by the new Chinese State Investment Company, which could possibly use a large fraction of its assets to recapitalise the Chinese banking sector. In a word, sovereigns are also in charge of economic policy and it is intrinsically difficult for them to maintain schizophrenia between their actions as policy-makers and their decisions as managers of public assets. The strategic allocation of their risky assets can therefore be expected to be used, in some cases, as another policy instrument. Given these specificities of sovereign holdings of risky assets, it is legitimate to wonder whether the growth of these holdings raises new challenges for central banks and the international community. Transparency I will conclude on the issue of the appropriate transparency level for SWFs. Should SWFs be more transparent than other institutional investors? This question must be addressed from two different perspectives: accountability and financial stability. As a public institution, an SWF should disclose a minimum set of information because of its fiduciary responsibility. Over the recent past, public institutions have responded more and more favourably to the arguments in favour of transparency. In particular, the benefits of greater accountability and the benchmarking of sovereign institutions tend to outweigh arguments in favour of secrecy. For instance, most central banks nowadays report their FX reserves holdings to the IMF under the SDDS and publish a detailed annual report.

Caleb M Fundanga: Brief background to the FinScope Zambia 2005 Survey Speech by Dr Caleb M Fundanga, Governor of the Bank of Zambia, as background to the FinScope Zambia 2005 Survey, Lusaka, 8 November 2006. *  *  *  Hon. Ministers and Deputy Ministers; Secretary to the Treasury Hon. Members of Parliament; Your Excellencies and Members of the Diplomatic Corps; Representatives of Development Agencies; Chief Executives of Banks, Regulatory Authorities and Financial Institutions; Distinguished Invited Guests; and Ladies and Gentlemen. On behalf of the Financial Sector Development Plan (FSDP) Secretariat, it is my pleasure to present a brief background to the FinScope Zambia 2005 Survey. Ladies and Gentlemen - In recognition of the strategic importance of the financial sector to the country’s development and poverty reduction efforts, in 2003 Government launched a project to formulate the first Financial Sector Development Plan (FSDP) which was approved by Cabinet in 2004. This followed the joint World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) report of 2002, which identified various weaknesses in the Zambian financial system including the following: •  Unstable macro-environment  •  Low financial intermediation  •  No formal structures for a financial safety net  •  Poor credit culture  •  Weaknesses in the regulation and supervision of non-bank financial institutions. Since the approval of the FSDP in 2004, a number of weaknesses have been addressed.