crisis has negatively affected the zambian economy in many respects and presents serious challenges to maintaining the health of the economy, macroeconomic stability has been maintained. the bank of zambia has continued to monitor the global developments and take appropriate measures to maintain confidence in the banking system and avoid systemic risk. it is important to note that despite the crisis, there still remains investment confidence in the zambian economy and one example of this is the number of new commercial banks that have commenced operations in zambia in the last 12 months. the bank of zambia is also committed to ensuring the availability of finance to viable businesses including qualified health businesses. doing so will help create a foundation for greater investment in the health of the nation. we appreciate the partnership and initiatives such as the “ banking on health ” in extending health services in zambia and look forward to greater investment in the health sector of zambia. i thank you.

lars nyberg : the riksbank's cooperation with sida speech by mr lars nyberg, deputy governor of the sveriges riksbank, at a seminar arranged by sida, stockholm, 13 december 2006. * * * let me begin by thanking you for this opportunity to briefly describe the riksbank ’ s work on aid issues. i would also like to say that it is particularly pleasing to see that the nobel peace prize has this year been awarded to efforts in the financial sector in bangladesh. otherwise, the financial sector is often sadly forgotten in aid contexts. foreign aid to developing countries often concentrates on combating poverty in all its forms, which is of course commendable. but it is easy to forget that a financial sector with functioning institutions is necessary to achieve long - term stable economic growth. a high inflation rate in one country may, for instance, quickly lead to greater poverty among large sections of the population than even the best type of poverty combating measures have time to counteract. a wellfunctioning central bank and responsible monetary policy can therefore make a significant contribution with regard to combating poverty. the riksbank has cooperated with sida for some years now in building up and reinforcing capacity within the central banks of sri lanka, vietnam and uganda. we do not call this foreign aid, but quite simply “ staff exchange programmes ”. as all of the central banks in the world do more or less the same things, albeit in rather different ways, it is always rewarding to see how others work. we therefore send experts in various fields out to the countries with which we have this cooperation, for instance, experts who design payment systems or make models for inflation forecasting. the other central banks send their staff to us for further discussion of these issues or to talk about other things, such as how we deregulated the financial system in sweden in the 1980s, or how important information and transparency are if one is to run a central bank with independent responsibility for monetary policy. recently we have received some young employees who have stayed with us for periods of a month to six weeks on “ internships ”, where they can, for instance, learn how to write a financial stability report from scratch. long - term thinking is a central concept of our programme. it takes time to understand one another ’ s reality and to create relationships that lead to cooperation based on mutual trust. we usually say it takes at least five years. central bank governors