of the analytical process under basel ii will certainly be demanding for banking institutions. it is equally demanding from the supervisory perspective to develop an appropriate response and assessment framework on these processes. instead of over focus on validating the detailed quantitative and statistical procedures, supervisory attention would need to ensure that the analytical processes are undertaken to support decision making, and not merely to meet regulatory expectations. supervisors also need to undergo early training to identify the relevant issues when undertaking the supervisory assessment. this underscores, the importance of efforts to accelerate supervisory capacity building efforts, particularly in the development of specialised supervisory skills to conduct model validation. while emerging market economies may have different timelines and priorities, rigorous training programmes need to be simultaneously pursued to ensure that the supervisors are able to fully understand and interpret the qualitative materials, and at the same time, are able to comprehend the broader supervisory issues and concerns. ladies and gentlemen, the benefits of basel ii cannot be fully realised if emerging countries do not have the necessary foundation for effective implementation. in reality, some developing and emerging countries still need to develop a more efficient and comprehensive legal, accounting, regulatory and market infrastructure. the challenge for the emerging economies is therefore to place high priorities towards establishing and strengthening the fundamental infrastructure. without the proper foundations in place, this could pose impediments to the implementation of basel ii, in addition to inhibiting the proper implementation of cross - border regulations and the effective conduct of consolidated supervision. in emerging countries where the necessary infrastructure is already in place, supervisors need to look beyond the state of the current financial landscape, in the context of the globalisation of financial services, and integration with the international landscape. against this backdrop, the appropriate regulatory framework for the banking industry, in particular, the future of cross - border supervisory arrangements, needs to be articulated. in this regard, it is also important to recognise that the challenge of cross - border banking in the context of the increased significance of international banks has far wider implications. ladies and gentlemen, the effectiveness of cross border arrangements would be easier to achieve when there is a greater consistency in the regulatory rules and standards as well as supervisory practices among the home and host supervisors. the new capital accord was therefore intended to accelerate the convergence process with respect to the adoption of international standards for capital adequacy in the global environment. in reality, however, total convergence cannot be expected given the varying levels of sophistication between developed and emerging countries. at any point in time, differences in rules

in the society learn to make the right financial decisions. and thus i invite those of you here who have not yet got involved, to join the programme. i urge you to get your friends and colleagues, who are not here, to also get involved. it can be done in many ways. • get your employers to sponsor lunch and learn sessions, in the workplace. • volunteer to organize and provide financial literacy classes to your community groups ; your church groups ; and your social clubs. • teach your kids good financial habits and seek to get financial literacy as part of the school curriculum. we will provide or arrange for the training, the materials and other back - stopping support. we continue to look for financing for the programme. the three year budget calls for an expenditure of $ 10 million of which about one - half is earmarked to come from the central government and the central bank. we would like to raise the remainder from stakeholders. as i said, financial literacy is a national imperative and we would hope to convince a broad cross section of the community to get on the national financial literacy bandwagon. at this point, i would now like to share some of the results of the base - line national literacy survey which was initiated to give us a general idea of the current level of financial literacy in the country. the survey results will also help us to make more targeted interventions as we move forward. we plan to conduct follow - up surveys to track the progress being made under the programme. the survey was conducted ….