news for banking, we must be concerned when these days it seems easier to spend on credit than to save ; i ’ m told you can even borrow money from one credit card company to pay off a loan from another! in the past weeks there has been a spectre hanging over the banking world emerging from the sub - prime market in housing loans in the us and ricocheting off most other components of the complex market in credit. for every loan there has to be a clear reciprocal relationship between debtors and creditors. here in mauritius we can see in microcosm the problems of the failure of this relationship emerging in the sale - by - levy traumas and the new processes of regulation and family support that have been so rapidly put in place by the government to help the poor debtors subjected to such foreclosures. ultimately there are of course no free lunches and no free loans ; people must be persuaded that in the end, if you borrow, you have to pay it back and the sooner the cheaper. it is certainly a concern if we are to drift on the moody ’ s scale of reliable debtors. one of our tasks ahead is no less than to change the culture and the forms of access to services. just as the government and even our civil service are trying to become more and more people - oriented, so this central bank needs to achieve that transition from being the bank of mauritius to being the bank for mauritians ; the bank of the people. we must make the sound financial choices for every family, the easy choices. we must also re - orient our communications accordingly. if we want to penetrate a new market, we must adopt a marketing strategy to compete with the other goods and services ordinary people buy. we will need a new language for getting the message across. as has been said in a recent imf seminar on finding this new market, the people out there have a different set of priorities in terms of the trends and the shape of the economy and their options for saving or spending : polonius, courtier in shakespeare ’ s play hamlet offering advice to his son before the latter leaves for england. “ they don ’ t care about the shape of the phillips curve, but they do want to know if their mortgage payments are going up ”. we may even have to start giving away pens rather than chaining them up at the counter. we must also beware of viewing the world of banking just as a bunch of accountants and economists, of whom

the “ wholesale and retail trade ”. smes ’ contribution to gross domestic product amounts to nearly 37 % or rs120 billion. estimates based on latest figures suggest that sme exports might represent around 20 to 25 % of total exports. with a view to further support the sector, the honourable vice - prime minister and minister of finance and economic development had announced in the budget speech 2012, that the banking sector would extend credit facilities to smes for an amount of rs3 billion over the next three years at 3 percentage points above the prevailing key repo rate. credit facilities granted to the smes at end - september 2011 amounted to about rs16 billion. following the announcement in the budget speech 2012, fourteen banks have been earmarked to grant credit facilities to the smes effective 1 december 2011. from that date up to 14 december, 59 applications for facilities by way of loans and overdrafts have been received for an aggregate amount of rs99 million. the number of applications received for loans was equal to that of overdrafts. however, the amount applied for loan facilities doubled bis central bankers ’ speeches that of overdrafts. out of the total applications received for rs99 million, an amount of rs17 million has been sanctioned. since the announcement of the budgetary measure, banks have promptly taken various steps to promote the scheme by inter alia setting up sme desks, assigning a team / department to promulgate the scheme, informing sme customers of the various sme products through letters, communiques, website and advertisement, and personally visiting sme customers to promote key products. financing the productive capacity of the economy is critical to long - term economic success. while large businesses have easier access to finance including capital markets, smes are heavily dependent on the banking system. today, it gives me great pleasure to note that non - bank deposit taking institutions are also participating in the development of the sme sector in mauritius. i value this initiative of the mauritius leasing company limited to support the sector through a line of credit of eur5 million funded by the european investment bank ( eib ) with the aim of providing leasing facilities to smes. the eib, the european union ’ s long - term lending institution, has been a long - time strategic partner in the development of the mauritian economy. since 1975, it has provided more than eur300 million for the financing projects in the country. we welcome the