on individual hong kong stocks and, since the launch a few weeks ago, on a selection of leading stocks of certain overseas exchanges. exchange traded interest rate products include one - month and three - month hibor futures ; and futures contracts on three - year exchange fund notes are expected to commence trading later this month. less visible, perhaps, to the outside observer, but no less important, is the trading of over - the - counter derivative products among financial institutions. fewer high frequency statistics are available for otc activity than for exchange - based activity, but the bank for international settlements publishes regular estimates and has recently released the results of its comprehensive triennial survey of activity in the world's foreign exchange and related derivative markets. the hkma has in parallel released some details of the hong kong data which we collected and submitted for that survey. briefly, in the three years up to april 2001, while, roughly in line with experience elsewhere in the world, turnover in the foreign exchange market in hong kong declined, activity in otc derivatives - essentially currency swaps and options, and interest rate swaps, options and forward rate agreements - rose by just under 10 %. interest rate products accounted for almost two thirds of the total of this derivatives activity. the apparent buoyancy of interest - rate related activity may be partly attributable to the growth of composite products such as structured notes which include an option or swap element. some of the a fuller account will appear in the forthcoming november issue of the hkma quarterly bulletin. growth in the interest rate swap market has also been associated with the continuing development of the hong kong dollar bond market, where well - rated names may combine issuance of longer - term fixed - rate paper with a swap to secure floating - rate hong kong dollars at sub - hibor, or, particularly in the case of some international borrowers, link this also with a currency swap to obtain us dollars at sub - libor. as regards exchange traded products, there has been a recent surge of activity in hibor futures. this may owe something to the steep downtrend in interest rates this year, which could have prompted both those who expect it to continue and those who are content to lock in borrowing at current low rates, to enter the futures market in order to speculate or hedge on their respective hunches. all in all, as these various examples illustrate, the derivatives infrastructure in hong kong has developed well to meet the evolving requirements of the business and financial communities

, would have cut their teeth in business through the route of micro and small enterprises. 6. secondly, msme sector is crucial for the success of the national agenda of financial inclusion. let me explain. normally, when we talk about financial inclusion, we do so largely from the perspective of an individual or at best a household. however, to my mind, universal financial inclusion cannot be considered to have been achieved unless it is ensured that the micro and small businesses are financially included. credits to these small family run or individual run entities from the formal financial channels would make these businesses sustainable and help them move out of poverty and propel them to a better quality of life. 7. the surmise that i am trying to drive at is that if this is the sector that is the bulwark for such critical developmental paradigms, there are compelling enough reasons for all stakeholdersbe they the associations, the financial institutions, the regulators or the government, to put annual report, ministry of msme 2015 – 16. bis central bankers ’ speeches all their might together in a convergent fashion so that the right environment is created to propel growth of msmes in our country. 8. for achieving this objective, there is a need to create an ecosystem which can facilitate handholding and nurturing of msme units particularly at the nascent stages. also, there is a need to eliminate a host of impediments – of permits, of inspections, of red tape and provide a set of enablers – skill development, infrastructure, markets, technology etc. however, of all the enablers, probably none is more important than credit. the ifc / mckinsey has estimated the credit gap for formal and informal msmes worldwide at around $ 3. 9 trillion globally, of which $ 2. 1 to 2. 6 trillion is in emerging markets. the abcd of credit 9. as i said, credit is perhaps the most critical component for msme entrepreneurs. provision for credit is essentially dependent on four pivotal issues which i would call “ abcd ” of credit. let me take you through each of them and also explain what we are doing to iron out these issues. a ) the a of credit – access / availability 10. the 4th all india survey of msmes states that close to 90 per cent of msmes are dependent on informal sources, which by any standards is a worrisome figure. since that survey, some headway must have been made in improving msmes ’ access