and will remain of us whatever may happen and we shall be sharers in their … fortune. ” mauritius is a part of the great indian diaspora, with enduring links to the motherland, from which more than half our population are derived, and who continue to cherish many of the cultural and religious traditions, and i am told, even cricket here, is now seeing some reviving interest. allow me to detail some of the most notable points in dr reddy ’ s life and work which commend him so strongly to us in this formal assembly today. his career in the past 43 years embraces service in india at state level in andhra pradesh and in national administration, finance, planning, monetary policy and public enterprise reforms. since 2003, he has been governor of the reserve bank of india and prior to this he was india ’ s executive director on the board of the international monetary fund. he has been internationally honoured and noted as one of the key players in the restructuring and reform of the indian economy in recent years, now so better placed on the world stage in terms of high growth and low inflation. dr reddy has been especially concerned to recognise the plight of the poor in india and to protect the stability of banking in the face of the global financial turbulence of recent times. for him banking and money, in a social democracy, are means to the end of securing social welfare, not ends in themselves. for dr reddy, a safe bank is a secure stronghold for sustainable development and its reliability must be continually tested against the changing pattern of risks. dr reddy is a well - travelled adviser and counsellor in the banking and finance sector world wide, working with the imf on fiscal policies in china, bahrain, ethiopia and tanzania. he also contributes significantly to the work of the bank for international settlements, the bank for central banks, and in his regional role in asean 1 1 and saarc 2 2, which can serve for us as an important stimulus in our regional activities. business week, the us finance journal, this year placed him amongst the elite group of leaders helping to transform india into a 21st century power in asia. it depicted him as : “ the jovial governor walking that fine line between holding on to his integrity as the central banker and giving in to the pressures of a populist government. reddy won! ” dr reddy in addition to his distinguished banking career, at home and abroad, has maintained a strong commitment to academic activity, through published work, teaching and research.

the experience on the continent shows that while regional organisations may be easily formed, they can be quite difficult to take forward. governments face difficult policy choices emanating from national, regional and international programs. multi - regional agendas arising from multiple memberships in different regional groups can become an obstacle to broader regional integration. is it not high time to bring all the various building blocs, like comesa, sadc, waemu and others, together as part of one integrated programme to deliver on the vision of a united africa that we have been pursuing for so long? as for financial integration, i am an inveterate optimist. i firmly believe that we can build an integrated financial market in our part of the world. it makes economic sense – we have the know - how ; we have the technology ; and above all, we have the people. repss is a first step in the direction of financial market integration. we need to continue to concentrate our efforts and resources instead of duplicating them. the time has come for us to re - define our vision of “ target africa ”. sometimes vision has to be re - defined before it can be transformed into action. bis central bankers ’ speeches