it at the african level ; we went to meetings with african ministers and governors in tunis, abidjan and dar es salaam, organised by the adb, african union, economic commission for africa, and others and i can tell you that few of us were expecting this kind of highly positive outcome and coherent vision ; we can say that this has been one of the best summits in recent memory. the global community at the level of the g20, which accounts for three - quarters of global gdp, has shown what are the possible avenues to explore to find a speedy solution out of the current crisis. that ’ s happening and it ’ s going to go beyond rhetoric. there is a commitment to review progress on these undertakings by the end of this year, there is a change happening here, and the us hegemony in these matters is frittering away before our very eyes to usher in the new world economic order that we have been talking about for as far as i can remember. responsibility for the surveillance of the global financial system and for extending that surveillance to non - banks, and commitment to keep trade flows open and to keep capital markets working – all these are acquired. that is part of what it takes to get the global economy going again and prevent it from slipping back into protectionism and monetary / financial mercantilism, which is its new avatar. for us it vital that we do not compound the problem by having the wrong policies domestically. * namely? basically the types of policy reforms that we have been engaged in for quite some time through successive governments have turned the country into what it is today. we are quite respected for having the right policies in place : we do not have the heavy hand of government interfering everywhere ; we have policy predictability and the absence of arbitrariness in economic decision - making ; we have plenty of space for the private sector to operate – these are things which not very common in africa. we should safeguard all this because our underlying policy stance is basically correct so long as we do not yield to shortterm temptations which will create problems for us down the line. the g20 leaders have said that they are going to monitor progress themselves to make sure that there, the prospect of recovery which they hold out becomes a reality which is going to be with us very quickly. while the global economic problems are being addressed by global leaders, we in our tiny part of the world should make sure that we keep the mauritian

caleb m fundanga : how the bank of zambia ’ s policies are impacting eastern province developments remarks by dr caleb m fundanga, governor of the bank of zambia, at the eastern province chamber of commerce and industry open meeting, chipata, 17 january 2008. * * * • the chairman – eastern province chamber of commerce and industry ( epcci ) • members of the executive committee – epcci • epcci members • invited guests • ladies and gentlemen first and foremost, i must state that i am pleased to have finally made the trip to eastern province under the invitation of the epcci. the visit was planned for last year but due to other commitments i could not make it. in this regard, i made it a point to make sure that i visit the province before the end of the first quarter. i am happy that we have actualized our plans during the first month. it is our hope that we will also be able to visit other provincial towns off the line of rail during the course of the year. mr. chairman, one may question what is the purpose of the bank of zambia to visit these outlying areas? the answer is simple and is drawn from our mission statement – which is “ to formulate and implement monetary and supervisory policies that will ensure price and financial system stability ”. our visit is therefore, to enable us assess the extent to which our policies are impacting development in the eastern province. for a start, we can rightfully boast that as a country we have achieved single digit inflation for the second year in a row and we have had no financial institution failures in the recent past. these successes are the result of monetary and fiscal policies that have changed the economic landscape of zambia. we have been fortunate that the successes have come at a time when we are seeing renewed economic interest in zambia. investments in mining and other sectors have significantly increased, and more importantly, the eastern province has not been left out. ladies and gentlemen, we have been following the developments in eastern province with keen interest ; hence our visit to see for ourselves what is going on. i must say that we are impressed with what we have been able to find out. it is clear that income levels have risen in the region and this has been driven by the boom in agriculture. this is an encouraging development. one of our primary concerns as policy makers is to ensure that development is not restricted or concentrated along the line of rail. we therefore urge you to use your enhanced income levels to invest in capital