nri. besides the other buzz - words of transparency, independence and integrity, what do these words entail? you may also ask why i continue to speak on this particular topic, as in my previous speeches. this is because i have seen in practice what good governance and accountability can do to an individual, an organisation and society as a whole. it is an important issue which should be given more prominence in our various training programmes and courses. i am glad that the ‘ governance ’ topic in your course took up about 9 hours of your course programme and contributed 5 percent to your overall grade. this is a clear reflection of the importance of this issue in public policy and management. you can have the best policies and strategies but these may not work if good governance is missing in their implementation. and in png, we have had a poor record - but it is improving. the lack of corporate governance and accountability in many of our institutions has been an area of concern. our past history and record of management in papua new guinea, especially in public institutions which are guardians of the nation ’ s interests and wealth, has given rise to the need to reestablish proper procedures and order. the on - going work of the parliamentary public accounts committee, which is an attempt to instill accountability on the use and management of public resources, is commendable. so are the efforts of the ombudsman commission, the institute of directors, inc., transparency international and other organisations that aim to promote good governance and accountability. these institutions not only advocate the use of proper rules and guidelines in conducting business, but also the use of one ’ s good sense and due diligence. whilst it is one thing to have in place the best rules and regulations, it is another thing to practice them using common sense. the collapses of large companies abroad, some due to accounting fraud but others due to carelessness and neglect, highlight the need for diligence. closer to home, the turn around of the former png banking corporation, prior to its sale, other financial institutions that we supervise and pension funds ( case of npf ) from loss - making institutions to profitable ones in a short space of time was based on one thing alone ; the newly appointed board and management of these institutions ensured that everyone was diligent and followed the established rules and guidelines re - sounding good governance. the important lesson here is, do not take short cuts. as you all return to your workplace, it is

crawling peg or an exchange rate managed by a currency board - mostly peg their currency to the euro only or to a basket in which the euro predominates. 1 the trend to use the euro as an anchor currency is becoming ever stronger, as hungary ’ s recent move from a euro / us - dollar basket to a clean euro link within the framework of the country ’ s crawling peg regime shows, and will continue to strengthen further in the upcoming years. as a result, the euro will also gain importance as an intervention and reserve currency in the region. ladies and gentlemen, the central and eastern european countries which are involved in accession negotiations with the european union are confronted with the basic question of how economic and monetary union features in the overall context of enlargement. as far as we can judge today, we see the economic and monetary policy integration of the candidate countries proceeding in three steps. in a first step, the candidates will accede to the european union, then they will participate in the erm ii, the exchange rate mechanism of the union, and finally, they will introduce the euro as their national currency. let me concentrate primarily upon the first of these three steps, thereby focusing upon those tasks the candidate countries are facing today and will face in the near future. in the period leading up to accession, the applicant countries will be confronted with two challenges. first, the accession candidates will have to fulfill the economic conditions for membership in the european union, as defined by the european council in copenhagen back in 1993. these conditions consist in establishing a functioning market economy and attaining sufficient competitiveness to participate in the single market. fulfillment of these conditions will allow the accession countries to integrate successfully into the economic and monetary cooperation within the union just like those incumbent eu member states which have not yet entered the euro area for the time being. let me make very clear that fulfillment of the maastricht convergence criteria is not a prerequisite for membership in the european union. still, a reasonable degree of macroeconomic prudence is essential in the run - up to eu accession, as stability - oriented policies facilitate structural change and foster the catching - up process in central and eastern europe. in this context, it is important to underline that there are no institutional constraints on exchange rate policies during the preaccession period. any exchange rate regime is feasible during this stage, provided that it contributes to and is embedded in an overall set of policies that is sound and effectively geared toward stability. coming from austria