do you justify the excruciating pain being experienced by industry and the man on the street? you devalued by a whole 49 percent to k250 and the currency has depreciated since then by another 14 percent to k285. then from nowhere you increased interest rates by an ugly 5 percentage points! that ’ s not all, mr. governor ; you have done nothing when the banks raised lending rates not by 5 but by 10 percentage points! give me a chance to respond albeit briefly. as we are dining here tonight, the imf team working on malawi ’ s request for a new fund - supported economic recovery program, and malawi ’ s executive board member in the fund, are putting together a bis central bankers ’ speeches strong case that malawi deserves to be supported in its recovery program. i can envisage the way the case will be laid out. let me try to put the argument before the imf board : in sharp contrast to the political impasse to effectively deal with the country ’ s problems under the bingu regime, indeed departing sharply from the country ’ s history of stop - go policies, the new government of h. e. mrs. joyce banda has undertaken bold measures to correct long - standing macroeconomic imbalances and to set the stage for an economic recovery in the months ahead. the local currency has depreciated by 63 percent in the last two months and interest rates have been hiked with the bank rate jumping from 13 % to 23 % to tame underlying inflation pressures and support the kwacha exchange rate which now floats freely. indications are that the pace of reforms will be sustained consistent with the agreed program in view of the president ’ s demonstrated passion to transform malawi and improve the welfare of her people. the president has also taken clear steps to allow the central bank policy independence which malawi badly needs. we therefore recommend approval of malawi ’ s reform program with a doubling in access to fund resources. well, i believe i can afford to be presumptuous here, if this story line is true, then the chances are that come tuesday morning malawi will wake up to realize that the imf program has been approved and if the government can adhere to its stated policy of zero borrowing, then malawi ’ s future is on the right path. you can imagine what some of us feel when we read in the papers and hear on the radio, and indeed hear in some circles “ amenewa ndiye sakuti

performance. we should at all cost avoid this. this course on financial programming is designed to take care of this problem by addressing inter - linkages between sectors and trade - offs associated with different policy mixes. the main challenge of making sound policy choices however still remains with principal officers in our institutions. the financial programming framework makes for more informed policy decisions and is not in itself a substitute for all important policy making process. ladies and gentlemen the programme for this course is quite comprehensive and covers theoretical issues, practical linkages and applications. the course also covers an analysis of the key macroeconomic accounts in an economy ( the general government, non financial corporations, financial corporations, households and non profit institutions serving households ). we hope that resource persons will demonstrate how an appropriate set of policy measures can be developed and coordinated to promote growth and achieve macroeconomic adjustment. the course will of course also cover forecasting techniques. at the end of the course, it is our expectation that the tools and techniques imparted to participants will help them achieve the following : – sharpen their understanding of the essential sectoral linkages and their impact on policy design ; – improve capacity in forecasting and projection skills and applications to policy formulation ; – improve appreciation of policy trade - offs and consistency ; – enhance appreciation of the sequencing issues in policy design and implementation and the importance of commitment to see policy measures run their course. this should enable participants tackle the following : formulate in a fairly precise way the nature of interrelationships among sectors of the economy ; establish outcomes of various policy options and ; recommend desirable policy packages and possible sequencing of measures. ladies and gentlemen, i appreciate that this is a fairly heavy agenda for the two week period, but i would like to believe that you will be up to the challenge. mefmi capacity building events fortunately are not designed as holiday packages! note however, that as in any learning process, the ultimate success of this programme will hinge upon the extent to which each and every participant exerts himself or herself. needless to say there is great potential for you to learn from each other as you come from diverse backgrounds and experiences, and there are unique contributions that each one of you can bring to the table. it is therefore my hope that after this course, you will go out fully motivated to make a difference at your places of work by implementing what you have learnt. share the fruits of this course with colleagues in your respective institutions. this is the very essence of the me