a number of legal and regulating measures aimed at promoting micro finance, on one side and, on the other side, the establishment of banks through to the areas of the country with minor financial services. similarly, it is worth referring that the government, in the context of its five - year term program, has been undertaking efforts in order to create conditions in terms of infrastructures, namely, roads, bridges, telecommunications and electric power network. we are conscious that, even though, there are constraints that should be cleared, but this is the real country we have and under which we should work, being necessary to continue seeking innovative ideas in order to face the current and future challenges. the view that the authorities have about the expansion of financial intermediation is that it cannot only be confined to the physical presence of bank branches in rural areas. it should be done in a broad and integrated way, making use of the advantages offered by the information technology systems. we need to find an adequate combination between the traditional and electronic banking, maximizing the use of products such as atm ’ s, pos, internet banking and mobile banking. in this engineering, the mailing services can and should be asked to play an important role as bank correspondents, making savings on their behalf and responsibility and rendering other kind of financial services. the principal idea is that the financial sector must also associate itself clearly to the efforts of the government and other economic agents, as well as the society in general, towards the accomplishment of the major objective of creating wealth in order to eradicate poverty in the country. ladies and gentlemen the objective of expanding banking institutions and financial services through to the rural areas is in line with the government strategy, which defines district as the pole of planning and development of our economy. we are certain that these two factors will interact contributing towards the same purpose, taking into account that, for the growth of districts, it will be necessary to continue to endow them with financial and human resources as well as infrastructures, similarly important for the financial sector to flourish. at the micro - finance level, we should stress the valuable contribution given by the authorities through the micro - finance support program, which aims specifically at expanding micro - finance activities through to the rural areas. there are experiences of countries with characteristics like ours, which confirm to be possible for the financial system to serve as the encouraging factor for development of economic and financially poor regions. countries like ghana, kenya and nigeria, for instance, can serve, at the

adriano maleiane : financial services efficiency in mozambique opening speech by mr adriano maleiane, governor of the bank of mozambique ( banco de mocambique ), at the swift african regional meeting, maputo, 22 may 2006. * * * dear mr. arthur cousins, swift board member, dear mr. david pryce, regional director for africa dear guests ladies and gentlemen i accepted with satisfaction the invitation to chair the opening ceremony of the swift african regional conference to be held under the slogan “ transforming the future : optimizing the local, regional and global markets ”. i would like to welcome all delegates present in this conference room, especially the african countries ’ representatives. as hosts of the swift african regional conference, we are greatly honoured to welcome you in maputo and wish you a pleasant stay. the great interest and participation in this conference proves the commitment of our governments and financial institutions to information technology current matters that we currently use in order to better prepare our countries to face up the challenges of the globalization and regional and continental integration. nowadays, information technologies are a paramount platform for the activity of various economy sectors, including the financial sector as well as the payment systems. the swift is an integral part of the technological infrastructure that our institutions use for settlement and clearing of bills, in the perspective of better serving the clients, prevent risks associated with our activity and, in general, to contribute for business environment improvement, an important factor to attract investments that we need to accomplish our economic and social development plans. in the globalized world we live, the information technology platforms are ever more harmonised, the reason why it is urgent to improve them in order to reduce the transaction costs and allow an adequate risk management, both in the domestic plan, as well as within the regional and international scope. ladies and gentlemen, our economies continue to be too small in the context of production and world trade. our countries are, in general, very sensible to exogenous shocks, either those resulting from adverse natural factors as well as those induced by situational changes and yet those resulting from changes in the international trade rules. our positioning in the world economy continues to be, in overall terms, that of commodity producers, whose access to international markets still faces various barriers and unequal treatment. this characteristic makes our countries highly dependent on the international community financial support, mainly in the form of grants. mozambique started with deep reforms in 1987, whose results within the financial sector are already visible, as can be