that international banks can actually have access to foreign currency at more competitive rates. the special line of credit in foreign currency was offered to give a sense of direction to the industry. so if branches and subsidiaries of foreign banks are prepared to share these competitive rates with the final borrowers, we can but encourage them to go in that direction, so long as the debt conversion does happen and other borrowers can benefit from the line of credit made available by these international banks from their own sources. we are happy to note that there are already a few proposals at advanced stages of finalization. a final point on the special line of credit in foreign currency : had we had a deeper financial market in mauritius, we would not have spent two months to get this going. our capital market is very small and very illiquid. one of our targets as a central bank is to achieve a certain deepening of our financial market. together with our colleagues in the capital market, we are working towards developing the bond market, alongside our own attempts to develop a secondary market of government paper. this would hopefully result in the issuance of a corporate bond which would have been the ideal vehicle for us to refinance existing rupee bis central bankers ’ speeches debt, by underwriting corporate bonds in foreign currency. we hope to be able to make some progress on this front in the next six months. the other issue on which we have made some progress is the task force on unfair terms. the task force is well - engaged in the information - gathering stage and various initiatives have been taken to sensitize the general public on the importance to contribute to the exercise. we believe it is high time that we try to give the consumer a fairer deal than what he has been getting so far and for our banks to help the sectors that are hurting, a bit more than they have been doing. another project in the pipeline is work on basel iii. as you know we are one of the few countries in africa that have moved to basel ii, and basel iii is round the corner. basel iii is trying to remedy internationally the kinds of problems identified in the banking sector that have been responsible, amongst others, for the global economic crisis. soon we will be issuing a consultation paper to the industry indicating our own approach to basel iii. so we will be introducing basel iii in a phased manner and by the end of 2018 approximately, we should be there. our banks are already meeting by and large many requirements of basel iii e

am reminded of the words of mark twain, an early tourist here : “ beware if you just stay on the right track, you may be run over by the next train that comes along! ” rest assured : there is no risk of that happening to us. we are on the right track. more than that, we have caught the right train and we are moving in the right direction. today, more than 80 central banks take monetary policy decisions in a committee. indeed, our launch vehicle of this morning is now recognised as a key element of how central banks the world over have transformed themselves. as alan blinder, of the us federal reserve, puts it “ one of the elements of the quiet revolution in central banking has been a change in the way monetary policy decisions are taken : the ‘ dictatorial central bank governor ’ of the past has increasingly been replaced by committees taking monetary policy decisions ”. the mpc, then, is part of the transformation of our bank. it is being established under section 54 of the bank of mauritius act 2004, with specific responsibility for the formulation of monetary policy. in addition to the executive side, comprising myself as the chairperson and my two deputy governors, the mpc has two board directors and three external members with experience in the field of economics, banking and finance. the deputy prime minister and minister of finance and economic development has appointed jacques li wan po, an old friend going back to our primary - school days, and shyam seebun as the two board directors on the mpc. he has appointed pierre dinan and jagnaden coopamah, my former civil service colleague and friend, as external members. i am circulating, for your information, some background information on all the members of this first mpc. we are also privileged to be able to draw on the experience of somebody as distinguished as mario blejer who has kindly agreed to support our work as honorary adviser to the mpc. mario is a respected academic, a former fund staffer, a past governor of the central bank of argentina and he is currently director of the centre for central banking studies at the bank of england – a position previously held by the late maxwell fry, to whom i referred earlier. thank you mario for being with us today and convey our thanks to the bank of england for allowing you to do so. i am also pleased to welcome stefan gerlach as observer to the mpc. he has extensive experience in monetary policy, having held a number