promising. mauritius also inspires confidence among foreign investors on account of its robust legal framework. as of date, our jurisdiction has made considerable efforts to establish appropriate legislations whether in the field of banking, financial services, anti - money laundering or securities market. however a big challenge still awaits the country ; we need to be compliant with the foreign account tax compliance act ( fatca ) by next year. the sooner this is achieved, the better it would be for us. we could then start selling our jurisdiction as a fatca - compliant one. to conclude, we need a vision for our financial industry : that is, ( a ) maintaining a best practice, principles based regulatory framework, ( b ) maintaining world class education and bis central bankers ’ speeches training to ensure the continuous availability of a highly skilled and innovative workforce and ( c ) removing barriers to the competitiveness, efficiency and liquidity of domestic financial markets. mauritius has many innate advantages. our geographic proximity to africa should provide a basis for diversification away from traditional markets. our growing trade integration with the region provides increasing trade financing and other opportunities for our financial sector. ladies and gentlemen, we need the collaboration of each and every stakeholder to enable mauritius to cement its role as a regional financial services hub. i wish good luck to the mma for its glorious initiative. thank you for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches

to produce textile products for the markets that we know – that is our job. we need the dollar at rs35, the euro at rs45, and the uk pound at rs55 – that ’ s your job! now, among the tools i discovered when i joined the central bank, unfortunately there was no magic wand … but i believe the debate has moved on a little. i am very pleased to see that i am no longer a lone voice in the wilderness. i understand that many of you have started active treasury operations for a more efficient management of your foreign exchange exposures and the attendant risks that go along. indeed, gbot ’ s edge programme aims to support these efforts. the acronym is self - explanatory : empowerment and development through global financial markets ’ education. i am also aware of gbot ’ s efforts to familiarize operators with hedging. much ink has been spilt on this issue of hedging in the local press in the wake of the unfortunate events at air mauritius and the state trading corporation. the airline ran into some unexpected turbulence, almost bankrupted itself in the process, and ejected management and boardlevel executives to claw its way back to solvency. our state trading corporation found fuel imports to be an explosive issue which led to the premature departure of its former chief executive. but abuse, or misuse, of a tool does not make the tool useless. it only underlines the necessity of perusing the user ’ s manual very carefully and familiarizing yourself with any health warning that comes with it, which is the object of this exercise this afternoon. it gives me great pleasure therefore to reiterate my full support to the edge initiative. bis central bankers ’ speeches as governor, i have become used, if not inured, to the periodic recriminations of our exporters on the value of the rupee. there have been times when these were accompanied by direct threats to phase down operations, to lay off thousands of workers, and cause other mayhem, if we did not provide relief via currency depreciation. and my unfaltering answer to them has always been that we are in a free market with no capital controls and the foreign exchange market is also free. the central bank is non - interventionist and when we do intervene, it is only to smooth out unwanted volatilities, not to achieve any particular exchange value of our rupee vis - a - vis any particular currency. hence, taking exchange