group - strategy 2010. and, i agree with their conclusion - that if you play to your considerable strengths and tackle the structural weaknesses which they identify, then northern ireland can have a prosperous future. we all have a part to play in this. the bank of england ’ s primary role is to help to maintain the stable macro - economic environment - in the interests of the uk economy as a whole but in the interests also of northern ireland. the specific purpose of my present visit is in fact to open, officially, our northern ireland agency, which is a direct result of my earlier visit. this completes our network of 12 regional agencies across the uk - with the purpose of keeping ourselves more closely informed of regional economic developments. previously neil kemsley covered northern ireland from our agency in liverpool and is here to make his farewell - and i am grateful to him for all that he did in reporting on developments here. but nigel falls - one of our most experienced regional agents - is now established here in belfast itself. he is also with us today. i very much hope that many of you will establish regular contact with him so that he can inform our monetary policy committee each month of the particular problems that exist in northern ireland, so that we can take them into account in our monetary policy process. his reports will complement those which roy bailie, our non - executive director here in ireland, gives regularly to our court of directors. in our monetary policy role the bank operates essentially on the demand side of the economy - aiming to keep aggregate demand in line with the supply - side capacity of the economy to meet that demand. but we can also contribute directly on the supply side, by helping to ensure that the financial system properly supports the needs of the wider economy. we have in fact for some years now been working with the banks and small business representative organisations at the national level, seeking to restore the relationships between the small business sector and its main finance providers - which came under severe strain during the recession in the early 1990s. i believe that we have made substantial progress in that - though we continue to monitor the position - and i hope that nigel will play a role in this process here at the local level. we are now turning our attention to the provision of finance in more specific areas - to ethnic minority businesses, for example, and to businesses that have hitherto been financially excluded. it is in this latter area that the bank has been strongly supportive of the prince ’ s trust - and particularly of the

priority of the governors ’ committee. arrangements have been introduced for the unrestricted repatriation of notes and coin used in participating countries amongst the members of sadc, and the movement towards an unrestricted flow of capital in the region is being promoted. south africa is lifting its remaining exchange controls in respect of sadc countries faster than for the rest of the world. two members, namely zambia and mauritius, have already removed all exchange controls in their countries. 7. reference has already been made to the work that is being done in the area of electronic data processing and the development of a cross - border network for financial clearing, payment and settlement transactions. international assistance is now sought ( through the world bank ) for the development of the national payment and clearing systems in the less - developed economies of the region. 7. the road ahead there is growing enthusiasm in southern africa for a regional approach to economic development issues. there are, unfortunately, more than one initiative for multinational regional economic co - operation arrangements in sub - saharan africa, initiatives that often compete with each other. in southern africa itself, the sadc and comesa ( the common market for eastern and southern africa ), groupings provide many overlapping services and some countries belong to both organisations, and others to only one of the two. the time has come for governments in the region to consider a merger of the two competing regional groupings in a more viable single regional association. both sadc and comesa have their own secretariats with a strong bureaucracy that often inhibits initiatives because of unnecessary rigid procedural requirements. in the case of the committee of governors of sadc, we often live in sin because of non - compliance with the prescribed procedures of the sadc secretariat. forgiveness, however, can easily be extorted, as long as progress and successes can be claimed. there is among some governments still a strong suspicion of the motives behind closer economic co - operation in the region. the question arises whether it is perhaps not a real danger that the powerful south african economy will exploit the smaller economies for its own advantage : south africa has to act with great discretion in performing its role in the programme. south africa obviously has a vested interest in the economic development of the region as a whole. internally, south africa still has many serious economic problems that must be resolved to improve the living conditions of its own people. unemployment is high, many communities live in great poverty, and there is a relatively wide spread between high and low incomes earned in the country