improve and strengthen their risk management systems. mas has long emphasised the importance of sound risk management to all financial institutions. in february 2006, mas issued risk management guidelines to enhance financial institutions efforts in this area. this was further supplemented by additional guidelines issued for insurance businesses in november 2007, covering areas such as product development, pricing, underwriting and claims handling. although it is difficult for the industry to be insulated from an economic downturn, there is scope for more forward - looking evaluation and management of the risks facing the insurance industry as a whole. rigorous stress testing and risk mitigating strategies for the asset side of the books are examples of areas that insurance companies should be paying particular attention to in these difficult times. ( ii ) encouraging investments in research and talent development second, i would like to encourage the industry to take advantage of the current downtime to channel resources to research and training. companies should not lose sight of the long term and use this opportunity to invest in trying to identify new risks, new trends and in capacity building. for research, this is very important. as the insurance industry in asia develops, there is an increasing need for better understanding of insurance risks in asia in order to allow for more robust risk modelling. for instance, systemic demographic shifts in asian countries will pose many retirement planning challenges. just to cite a quick statistic, from the year 2000 to 2050, the old - age dependency ratio in asia is projected to rise from 9 % to 27 %. there is a need for everyone to have a better grasp of this relatively new challenge of managing longevity risk. many countries have been reviewing and improving their pension systems given this trend. for the insurance industry, longevity risks for the different markets will need to be better understood before appropriate products and services can be developed and offered. to support such efforts, i am glad to note that our local universities have initiated research institutes and projects in these areas. one example is the new centre for silver security under smu ’ s sim kee boon institute for financial economics. the centre will focus on research in retirement security issues such as retirement planning and pensions. axa university could thus leverage on the research community here to enhance the knowledge of risks in our region. the other aspect is the competency and availability of skilled professionals in the insurance industry. having a pool of talent with the necessary skills is critical for the industry to maintain its competency and remain competitive. to support the specialised need of the insurance sector, the nanyang

emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile : an e - learning initiative for ugandan financial institutions speech by mr emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile, governor of the bank of uganda, at the launch of barclays university, kampala, 20 july 2006. * * * the board of directors, management & staff barclays bank of uganda ltd distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, let me begin by expressing my appreciation to the board of directors and management of barclays bank of uganda limited for inviting me to launch the barclays university in uganda. barclays university, which is an initiative of the barclays plc, is an internet based learning concept, was first hatched out in 2002 and has since been rolled out in kenya, zambia, south africa, botswana and ghana. today, uganda joins the above mentioned african countries in hosting barclays university learning centre. the opening of barclays university learning centre in uganda at this particular time is an indication of the confidence barclays plc has placed in uganda. i have been made to understand that the key objective of the barclays university, is to avail learning opportunities to all the bank ’ s staff in various areas of banking operations in order to empower them with superior skills and expertise for attaining competitive advantage to match the escalating competitive strategies being rolled out by the various providers of financial services in the local, regional and global markets. barclays university will employ e - learning to provide educational opportunities to staff to acquire leadership skills. the move to e - learning provides more people with access to leadership development opportunities at their local work stations, hence being cost effective. the programme aims at influencing staff attitudes to view learning as a continual development opportunity that can be achieved through a range of channels. barclays university learning centre will create a unique learning environment, which is relaxed yet inspiring, buzzing yet contemplative and will be equipped with the state of the art learning technology. the programmes offered by barclays university are designed to be highly flexible, allowing users to adapt to whichever form of learning they find appropriate to their specific needs. the university will employ personal computers designed to run business focused courses with cd - rom access, internet based e - learning courses, as well as access to the barclays university website to provide a wide range of learning menu to the bank ’ s staff. the learning centre has been designed as an informal meeting point, a central information point and an exciting visual space featuring one large plasma screen providing information about barclays university or