at all possible to unwind globalization without seriously affecting national economies and the global economy, the objective being some trade - off between a little gdp for greater income equality. the “ big ideas ” might be out there, but they ’ re buried in a blizzard of abstractions, qualifiers, pros - and - cons, excuses and rationalizations, the truly annoying and pathetic deflections, even counter and counter - counter arguments. the clash between economics and politics is assuming a dimension that does not augur well for the world economy. the ratios of world trade to world output have been flat since 2008, making it the longest period of stagnation since world war ii. does it suggest that globalization is no longer driving world growth? has globalization reached its limit? if the process is coming to an end, or even going in reverse, it would not be the first time since the industrial revolution, in the early 19th century. two phenomena might threaten democracy : continuing weak productivity and what has come to be known as secular stagnation, a terminology coined by larry summers. we commonly 2 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches understand democracy as a system that takes scores of voters to say ‘ yes ’ before reforms are implemented. democracies also have loud voices. those are voices that wait for a fight to break out and take a swing at the guy they have always wanted to hit. whether or not the guy had anything to do with starting the fight is beside the point. it takes only a few loud voices that cherish democracy to say ‘ no ’ to stop the reforms. press the ‘ no ’ button for reforms, the path to economic recovery becomes unnavigable. no wonder it takes long for democracies to come out of recession. a blistering cocktail of unsettling forces is militating in most societies. the vast majority of people finds the word ‘ austerity ’ abhorrent. we are not exempt. voices, particularly the louder ones, suffused with vice and folly with some form of addictive delirium, are more about ‘ taking ’ than about ‘ making ’. it leaves one rather uninspired when it comes to the ‘ mental tone ’ underlying people ’ s actions. unlike in the distant past, more precisely in what used to be called a peasant society, a man is no longer sized up by the number of children he has. he is today sized up by the number of rolex watches and number of t

harvesh seegolam : keynote address - grant agreement keynote address by mr harvesh seegolam, governor of the bank of mauritius, at the signature of grant agreement between the regional centre of excellence and the organisation for economic cooperation and development, balaclava, 18 may 2023. * * * dr. carmine di noia, our special guest from the oecd, director of finance and enterprise affairs, oecd first deputy governor of the bank of mauritius and chairperson of the fsc second deputy governor of the bank of mauritius director general, independent commission against corruption chairperson of information and communication technologies authority board members of the bank of mauritius board members of the financial services commission chief executive of the fsc chief executive officers of industry associations chief executive officers of banks and other institutions members of the rce governing board members of the press ladies and gentlemen all protocols observed good afternoon it gives me immense pleasure to address this forum today for the signature of the second grant agreement between the regional centre of excellence ( rce ) and the organisation for economic cooperation and development ( " oecd " ). i am deeply honoured to witness this momentous event as chairperson of the governing board of the rce. the gratification i have in seeing that the rce, an institution, the setting up of which was done by me in my then capacity of ce of the fsc, in 2019 is living fully to its expectations is even more overwhelming. i would like to congratulate the rce team on their dedication to establish the institution as a reference in our region. the genesis of an rce for the region is found in the 2018 / 2019 budget. at that time, the creation of a regional centre of excellence was announced with the objective of strengthening and supporting effective regulation, sound corporate governance and good conduct in the southern and eastern african regions. this was followed by the signature of a memorandum of understanding between the government of mauritius and the oecd in september 2018. the rce was launched in april 2019 and is the first of its kind institution to collaborate with the oecd on the african continent. ladies and gentlemen, 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches capacity - building institutions abound in the world. but very few are tailored to the pragmatic elements that are pertinent to the work of financial regulators and law enforcement agencies. the latter often has to grapple with a number of complex objectives, ranging from macro - objectives, namely :