level of our continent, as the source of inspiration in the process of promotion and development of micro - finance institutions. although the cases of relative failure observed since the 70s until the present days are not at all to be neglected, in the micro - finance domain, however, we have to note that asia is a continent replete with successful experiences. with respect to cases of success, three institutions deserve relevance for their contribution in the fight against poverty in their respective countries : the bank for agriculture and agricultural cooperatives, ( baac ), of thailand founded in 1966, the “ bri unit desa ” system of the bank rakyat of indonesia ( bri - ud ), founded in 1984 and the grameen bank ( gb ) of bangladesh created in 1983, which today hold a portfolio of savers to the tune of 4. 4, 14. 5 and 2. 1 million, respectively. the history of grameen bank is very simple, but very rich in terms of learning aspects. its founder, mr mohammad yunus, began his activity as money lender, granting loans to 42 poor people who needed an individual amount equivalent to usd 27. that was in this way that everything started for the case, which today is the world reference in the field. the success obtained in terms of the fight against poverty and the increased potential of business in the areas where he operated, encouraged him to create a rural bank. besides the information i referred to, recent data pointed out that today the bank employs 18, 796 workers, and holds a portfolio of 6. 61 million loan beneficiary clients, of which 97 % are women and, a network of 2, 226 branches. mohammad yunus and the grammen bank were awarded the 2006 peace nobel prize, thanks to their devotion to the cause of the more needed population of their country. it is not possible to ensure social and political stability with high poverty indices the reason why the fight against it is a priority that cannot be postponed. besides, recognising this fact, the norwegian committee of nobel prize supported its decision to award the prize in the following terms : “ the long lasting peace cannot be achieved without opening a way so that a large number of people is poverty free ” end of quotation. it was considering all the potential financial intermediation for economic growth that, in the present year, we chose for debate in our xxxi consultative council the topic : bancarizacao da economia – extensao

is presently ignored by the domestic financial service network. ladies and gentlemen we are certain that in the current conditions, the enlargement of financial services to less favoured areas of the country, requires the provision of a number of non banking external factors as well as fiscal and non fiscal incentives. therefore, bringing into debate a package of measures aimed at encouraging the enlargement of financial services throughout the country, we intend to get contributions from representatives of various transversal areas herein represented so that we can improve further the referred project with the purpose of ensuring the adoption of more effective actions that stimulate investments for the expansion and extension of financial services in mozambique as quickly as possible, increasing the financial intermediation. we are not eluded in relation to the challenges we have forward, including in the macroeconomic plan, provided that stability is an essential element for investments in the context of more banking institutions throughout the country to take place effectively. we ended 2006 with a considerable reduction of inflation and the data we have been monitoring in 2007 suggest the continuous reduction and control of inflation. in the same way, with respect to the trend of the metical exchange rate in relation to the usd, available data pointed out to a greater stability in 2007, in an environment of greater convergence between the usd rates in different segments of our foreign exchange market. these data show a scenario that encourages us to review some of the monetary policy instruments managed by the banco de mocambique. in this context, during february, we will reduce the mandatory reserve rate that the banking institutions should constitute at the banco de mocambique, and we will accommodate its regime of constitution in line with our objectives of a major deepening of money market operations and a major financial intermediation in the country. ladies and gentlemen before i finish, i would like to express my gratitude to all those who, in a devoted and patriotic way, involved themselves in the process of introduction of the metical of the new family, integrating various working committees, or travelling throughout this country from maputo to rovuma and from indico to zumbo, visiting villages, towns, districts and provinces, carrying out the heroic mission of informing our population of the importance and objectives behind this process. the mission is not yet finished, but it is not fairly a lack of modesty if we assert that the process was successful, taking into account similar experiences we have heard of. in this final stage of the process, i would like to urge, particularly, the