also been conducting joint seminars such as this one to share experiences and learn from one another. this workshop therefore comes at such an opportune moment to assist our central banks to achieve the internal and regional objectives. the workshop offers various opportunities to all of us in a number of ways : • first, this is an opportunity to jointly re - assess and evaluate our performance in the areas of business continuity management and risk management over the period. • secondly, it provides us with an opportunity to learn from organisations that have run risk management and business continuity programs for many years. • third, this is an opportunity for each of our central banks with programs in their infancy to lay the correct foundation to implement sound and resilient risk management and business continuity programs. • fourth, this is an opportunity to obtain uniform training for each of the key players in their respective roles. with a common foundation, the objective of harmonisation in the region will draw closer to reality. bank of uganda would greatly benefit if the following areas are specifically addressed within this workshop : • performance measurement : what are the key indicators that central bank management should use to know that their business continuity and / or risk management programs are giving them the intended benefits? • evaluation : how does the central bank evaluate performance over time and which tools are recommended? • reporting : what should be reported about risk and business continuity at the different levels of the organisation including the board? • incident reporting and monitoring : how does the central bank ensure that all risk incidents are systematically reported and monitored? • culture change : what are the different approaches to organisational culture change towards risk and business continuity? i would like to conclude by again thanking you all for coming to this workshop and to thank the centre for central bank studies and the centre for technical central bank cooperation for the technical support. bank of uganda is greatly indebted to them. i wish you fruitful deliberations. it is now my pleasure to declare this workshop officially opened.

to look forward to, and prepare to face the challenges of the future. at the core of the bank ’ s statutory mandate is monetary policy and financial regulation. in the coming decades, our monetary policy will continue to prioritise, above all else, the control of inflation. bis central bankers ’ speeches this is because low and stable inflation is a precondition for mobilising high levels of savings and investment and for efficient resource allocation, which are essential for sustained economic growth. along with other central banks around the world, the bank of uganda prioritises the control of inflation because it is the only institution within the country, which has the tools to do this, through its monetary policy. for most of the last 25 years uganda has enjoyed relatively low inflation, averaging approximately 6 percent per annum. that achievement would not have been possible had the bank not put inflation at the forefront of its monetary policy objectives. bank regulation and supervision must constantly evolve to meet new challenges arising from the structure and technology of the financial services industry. in the coming decades, the financial services industry will be transformed by information technology. this has already started to happen with the advent of mobile money. it is also likely that cross border banking will become even more important than it is today, especially where institutional arrangements such as the east african common market enable services to be traded freely across borders. the priority objectives of our bank supervision will remain the protection of depositors and the preservation of financial system stability. a key challenge for the bank will be to ensure that the introduction of new financial products and new ways of delivering financial products, which will be made possible by technological innovations and which offer immense benefits to customers, can be achieved in a manner that is consistent with our key prudential objectives. in addition, the increasing importance of cross border banking means that effective bank supervision in uganda will not be possible without close collaboration with our counterparts in other countries. economic integration in east africa is vital for uganda ’ s long term prospects for development. the east african community ( eac ) partner states have a three - phase programme for economic integration in the region, which involves : first, the customs union ; second, the common market ; and, third, the monetary union. the bank has been an active participant in the preparations for eac monetary union under the monetary affairs committee of the regional central banks. monetary union will be very challenging to implement effectively, and we must study and heed the lessons to be learned from the difficulties faced by