just the beginning of such consultations with the malawi law society and other stakeholders in the financial sector, as we try to strengthen the financial sector, for the good of our nation. ladies and gentlemen finally, i would like to thank management of sunbird ku chawe inn for providing excellent facilities for this seminar. once again, the reserve bank of malawi warmly welcomes all distinguished participants to this seminar. i wish you very fruitful deliberations. mr. president, ladies and gentlemen thank you for your attention and may god bless you all. bis central bankers ’ speeches

perks m ligoya : safeguarding malawi ’ s foreign exchange reserves speech by dr perks m ligoya, governor of the reserve bank of malawi, at the official launch of the exchange control manual, blantyre, 29 december 2009. * * * president, bankers ’ association of malawi chief executives of commercial banks distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen compliments of the season. it gives me great pleasure to officially launch the exchange control manual. on behalf of reserve bank of malawi and indeed on my own behalf, i welcome you all to this memorable event. distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, the objectives of the official launch of the exchange control manual are three - fold : a ) to present the exchange control manual to its ultimate users - authorized dealer banks and the business community. b ) to assure exporters and importers that the reserve bank of malawi is fully committed to economic liberalization that it embarked upon some fifteen ( 15 ) years ago. c ) to garner support and cooperation of banks and the business community in ensuring prudent use of foreign exchange reserves. in order to achieve these objectives, let me start by mentioning that the main challenge ( and particularly so in recent times ) for malawi as an emerging economy is the generation of sufficient foreign exchange reserves to meet the economy ’ s growing import demand. malawi ’ s foreign exchange reserves are volatile due to the economy ’ s over - reliance on primary commodity exports and in particular a few agriculture exports. this reliance will continue to undermine the country ’ s foreign reserves position unless significant progress is made in growth and diversification of exports. while export diversification on its own may not be a panacea for an improvement in foreign exchange reserves, the principle that export diversification can contribute to reducing instability of export earnings is widely accepted. thus, government in its quest to mitigate malawi ’ s external vulnerability and, more generally, the country ’ s overall economic performance and welfare, continues to take initiatives to promote export diversification. the generation of adequate foreign exchange reserves is key to malawi ’ s growth prospects. apart from supporting the malawi kwacha exchange rate, reserves are also essential in supporting economic growth through imports of industrial raw materials, agricultural inputs, medicines and other basic necessities. government, in this regard, continues to undertake initiatives to boost and preserve the country ’ s foreign exchange reserves. one such initiative is the computerization of export proceeds tracking system. we are all aware that in november 2008, the bank rolled out the