the rt hon sir edward george : international efforts to improve the global economy speech by the rt hon sir edward george, governor of the bank of england, to the swiss institute of international studies at the university of zurich, 7 may 2001. * * * a week ago i returned from the annual spring meeting of the imf in washington, and i thought that i might discuss with you this evening where we are in our collective international efforts to improve the functioning of the global economy. in particular i will touch upon two broad areas : first, the approach to overall economic management ; secondly, the approach to strengthening the international financial system. but i should like to begin with a few words about the process of international monetary and financial co - operation. finance ministers and central bank governors, as well as their deputies, spend a good deal of time at meetings in various different international fora. i am often asked after one or other of these meetings " what exactly did you decide? " and more often than not, the answer is that we did not actually take any specific decisions. we exchanged opinions, and often agreed that we needed to do more work on this or that issue which we could review and debate at a subsequent meeting. you could be forgiven for thinking that the process of reaching international agreement on anything moves at a snail's pace. to a degree that is true. but even a snail can make considerable progress provided it keeps going. i am told that the world record for a snail is about 16 cms a minute, or roughly one kilometre in 4 days. on that basis a snail could leave here this evening and be in the bis in basel in under a year. it necessarily takes time to build an international consensus to move forward on any significant issue, and you need a broad consensus if whatever it is you agree is to have any meaningful effect. and if you look back over ten, or even five, years, rather than just at the outcome of any particular meeting, then the amount of progress really has been very considerable. overall economic management let me illustrate this first in relation to the broad consensus that now exists – within the developing, emerging, and transition economies as well as within the industrial world – on the general approach to overall economic management. that consensus can perhaps be summed up essentially as " macroeconomic stability and supply - side flexibility ", though that characterisation needs elaboration. on the macro - economic side we have learned – and it has taken some countries longer than others –

me to acknowledge both the financial and technical support received from our partners that have rendered the mefmi capacity building efforts effective in general. particularly and in support of the fellows development programme, the technical cooperating partners have gone an extra mile by providing expertise that groom the fellows on gratis terms. turning to the fellows who have graduated today, i would like you to sincerely note that mefmi holds you in very high esteem. as such you need to live to its ideals. mefmi ’ s investment, let alone the investment of member states in human capital development, is very dear. in this regard, i urge you to display high levels of integrity and dedication by leading in assisting to impart knowledge and skills in your own institutions. it is our honest expectation that compensation from your own institution or mefmi will not be the only guiding motive for you to impart skills on behalf of your institution or mefmi because they have respectively assisted you to acquire the special skills in this programme. 5. ladies and gentlemen : i believe the graduants are anxiously waiting to celebrate later tonight and as such i do not intend to prolong my speech. i would like oncemore to thank all the distinguished guests that joined us in this memorable occasion. i would like to especially thank the financial cooperating partners that are ably represented by their ambassadors resident in harare and also the africa capacity building foundation ( acbf ). i wish all the graduated fellows a safe return home. finally allow me to thank our host government through governor gono and principal secretary, manungo, for the excellent hospitality that mefmi secretariat is enjoying in spite of the economic challenges that zimbabwe is going through. mefmi will continue to count on you in this regard. last but not least let me thank mefmi staff for the secretariat ’ s hard working spirit that guarantees good outcomes all the time. i thank you all! asanteni!!