twelve years ago the country emerged from apartheid, international isolation and economic and financial sanctions. the new dispensation inherited an economy characterised by low growth and high levels of inflation. growth averaged 1, 0 per cent over the period 1984 to 1993, while inflation averaged 14, 3 per cent during the same period. since then, macroeconomic performance has improved significantly as a result of improved policies. in sharp contrast to the 1, 0 per cent gdp growth attained during the decade preceding 1994, south africa has since experienced twelve years of uninterrupted gdp growth, averaging 3, 3 per cent per annum. the economy grew by 4, 5 per cent and 4, 9 per cent during the last two years and growth this year is also expected to exceed 4 per cent. the governors ` club is an association of central banks from central asia, black sea region and balkan countries. it consists of 19 members from the following countries : azerbaijan, albania, armenia, bulgaria, bosnia and herzegovina, greece, georgia, israel, kazakhstan, kyrgyz republic, macedonia, montenegro, moldova, russia, romania, serbia, tajikistan, turkey and ukraine. prudent fiscal management has seen south africa's budget deficit reduced from 5, 2 per cent of gdp in 1994 to 2, 0 per cent of gdp in 2004, and 0, 3 per cent of gdp in 2005. monetary policy also underwent a significant ‘ regime change ’ during the period, with the adoption of an inflation - targeting framework in february 2000. one of the fundamental objectives behind the adoption of the inflation targeting framework was to enhance policy transparency and accountability and thereby decrease and anchor inflationary expectations over time. the improvement in the performance of the south african economy needs to be maintained if meaningful progress is to be made in meeting the economic and social challenges facing the country, particularly the eradication of poverty and unemployment. the south african government has, therefore, set itself the goals of halving poverty and unemployment by 2014. to meet these challenges, the government seeks an annual gdp growth rate that averages 4, 5 per cent or higher between 2005 and 2009, and an average growth rate of at least 6 per cent between 2010 and 2014. public infrastructure investment to the value of r370 billion is also planned for the next three years. the targeted interventions in public transport, communication and electricity provision should not only contribute to the growth performance over the next couple of years but also go some way towards increasing the growth potential of the economy. 3.

for the safety of the money lent by the banks, timely support through restructuring in genuine cases is called for. the objective of restructuring is to preserve the value of viable entities that are affected by certain internal and external factors and minimize the losses to the creditors and other stakeholders. we already have a detailed regulatory prescription, separately for corporate debt restructuring mechanism for consortium advances and standalone restructuring by individual banks. 12. the objective of the corporate debt restructuring ( cdr ) framework is to ensure timely and transparent mechanism for restructuring the corporate debts of viable entities facing problems, outside the purview of bifr, drt and other legal proceedings, for the benefit of all concerned. in particular, the framework aims at preserving viable corporates that are affected by certain internal and external factors and minimize the losses to the creditors and other stakeholders through an orderly and coordinated restructuring programme. the cdr mechanism has been designed to facilitate restructuring of advances of borrowers enjoying credit facilities from more than one bank / financial institution ( fi ) in a coordinated manner. framework for revitalising distressed assets 13. the reserve bank of india has released in early 2014 a framework for revitalising distressed assets in the economy. the framework outlines a corrective action plan that will incentivise early identification of problem cases, timely restructuring of accounts which are considered to be viable, and taking prompt steps by banks for recovery or sale of unviable accounts. the main features of the framework are : ( i ) central repository of information on large credits ( crilc ) has been set up by rbi to collect, store and disseminate credit information with the reporting entities in respect of borrowers enjoying aggregate exposure ( funded + non funded ) of ₹50 million and above. ( ii ) early formation of a lenders ’ committee ( joint lenders forum ) with timelines to agree to a plan for resolution ; mandatory beyond the exposure of ₹1000 million and above. the corrective action plan may include any one of the following : a ) rectification b ) restructuring c ) recovery ( iii ) incentive and disincentive structure for lenders to take corrective actions in a timely manner ( iv ) incentives for lenders to agree collectively and quickly to a plan : better regulatory treatment of stressed assets if a resolution plan is underway, accelerated provisioning if no agreement can be reached. ( v ) improvement in current restructuring process : independent evaluation of large value restructurings mandated, with a focus on viable plans and a fair sharing