easily envisage incurring a loss. it could not persuade the treasury to issue more paper, with a senior finance official bluntly saying : “ excess liquidity is your problem! ” to the bank officer mandated to explore this issue with the treasury. unlike some central banks, we did not have the option of automatically issuing treasury paper for monetary policy purposes for the government ’ s account. tentatively, we started issuing 28 - day bank of mauritius paper. we had already abandoned the overnight placement facility with the central bank as it didn ’ t serve any useful purpose given the high costs incurred. persistent excess liquidity led to frequent rollovers of our 28 - day paper. the bank lengthened the maturity of its own paper and, before long, found itself issuing bills of 91 - day, 182 - day and 364 - day maturities as well as notes of 2 - year, 3 - year and 4 - year duration. at peak time, the bank had a total of rs11. 5 billion outstanding, compared to rs31. 5 billion of treasury bills at the time. let me fast forward to the present when we are facing sporadic liquidity shortages in the domestic banking system. since early december, we have gone into reverse mode. we have been offering to buy back our own paper but no bank has taken us up on our offer yet. fourth, the bank ’ s accounting framework. this required the bank to liquidate periodically, part of its portfolio to distribute unrealized gains, and did not allow dynamic provisioning. i shall spare you the details of how we managed to effect changes in the bank ’ s accounting framework in the face of concerted opposition from the bank ’ s external auditors, the treasury, the state law office, and some of our own accounting staff – or how we got the imf to defend our corner. in november 2011, we also doubled the bank ’ s capital from rs1 billion to rs2 billion to quell any fears about the bank ’ s capital adequacy. both are fascinating stories, but we shall have them for another time. fifth, credit to small cane - growers. when the sugar sector was hit by continued decline in export prices and small planters were abandoning cane cultivation, the bank made available a cheap line of credit in rupees amounting to rs1. 5 billion in each of the two years 2010 and 2011 and of rs1. 3 billion 2012 to the mauritius sugar syndicate to finance the

private sector would fund an amount of usd 2. 3billion while the remaining usd4. 2 billion would have to be financed externally. tangible signs are already perceptible with an increasing demand for financial instruments and products that are esg compliant. the stock exchange of mauritius ( sem ) will have a critical role in spearheading the mobilisation of climate finance. i would like here to place on record the contribution of the sem well before sustainability considerations became an over - arching priority in the financial world. it introduced the semsi in september 2015, a sustainability index which evaluates the practices of listed companies based on esg criteria. to date, there are eighteen companies participating in this index. sem has also proceeded with the listing of the first green bond in october 2023. the sem remains a reference in the region. i am sanguine that it will continue to remain a pioneer in our region and position mauritius as a hub for sustainable finance. i would, however, make an appeal to the sem to ensure that all international norms and best practices are being adhered to as they pursue the development of this important niche. the collaboration between the sem and risk insights has come at an opportune time to elevate the sustainability agenda of our jurisdiction to new heights. both listed and unlisted companies will now be able to access a comprehensive set of esg rating tools, 2 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches disclosure insights, analytics and esg intelligence impact reports. this will indubitably improve the quality of esg reporting within mauritius while showcasing our esg credentials on the global stage. ladies and gentlemen we are all aware that climate change has already made significant inroads into the mainstream of finance by becoming a key consideration in the decision - making process. a study by standard chartered bank in june 2021 concluded that by 2025, 78 per cent of multinational corporations ( mncs ) will remove suppliers that endanger their carbon transition plan. these mncs are expected to exclude 35 per cent of their current suppliers as they transition away from carbon. any company that deals with these mncs, either directly or indirectly, run the risk of being excluded from future business opportunities if they do not start to adapt their businesses to esg practices. you will need to redefine your processes and business strategy for a smooth transition. i concur that the re - engineering could entail additional expenses. however, i would urge