bank of uganda remarks by louis kasekende ( phd ) deputy governor, bank of uganda at the 2017 financial reporting ( fire ) awards kampala serena hotel ; november 09, 2017 ceo of capital markets authority, president of the institute of public accountants of uganda all captains of industry, and sponsors of the fire awards, ladies and gentlemen good evening! i would like to begin by thanking the ceo of the institute of certified public accountants in uganda for inviting me to be chief guest at this wards dinner and to commend the institute and the other organisers and sponsors – the capital markets authority, the uganda securities exchange and the new vision – for this very commendable initiative. i hope it will lead to a greater understanding among the business community in uganda of the benefits which firms can derive by preparing financial accounts that comply with best practise and global reporting standards. i want to reflect in these remarks on the contribution which financial reporting makes to a developing economy and in particular the growth of a modern business sector. the business sector in uganda is dominated by small and medium scale enterprises ( smes ) ; the most recent comprehensive data which are available from the census of business establishments indicates that the average number of employees of a registered business is only 2. 3. as is the case elsewhere in africa, smes in uganda struggle to expand. the vast majority of them never expand enough to become large firms. of the approximately 460, 000 registered businesses in uganda, less than 1, 000 have more than 50 employees. one of the reasons why smes struggle to expand is the nature of these firms. the majority are owned by a single proprietor or by a group of related family members. the proprietor of the firm is often the manager. the governance of these firms, including financial governance, tends to be informal, without transparent rules, records and procedures. this type of informal governance may be adequate for small companies but it is a major barrier to their growth and expansion. firms cannot expand without mobilising capital for investment. beyond a relatively small size, the investment needs of a firm outstrip the financial resources of a sole proprietor or a single family. hence finance must be mobilised from outside sources ; i. e. from outside of the firm ’ s immediate ownership. from a business perspective, the ideal form of finance for firm expansion is equity capital, because this is long term finance and its returns are linked to the performance of the firm. equity capital from outside sources can be mobilised through private

wu xiaoling : lessons we should learn from the asian financial crisis remarks by ms wu xiaoling, deputy governor of the people ’ s bank of china, at the international seminar on the tenth anniversary of the asian financial crisis, beijing, 21 june 2007. * * * ladies and gentlemen : good morning. it is a great pleasure for me to attend the international seminar on the tenth anniversary of asian financial crisis jointly hosted by the financial research institution of the people ’ s bank of china, institute of world economics and politics of chinese academy of social sciences, and the china business news. please allow me, on behalf of the people ’ s bank of china, to welcome the distinguished guests from the world bank, the international monetary fund and other international institutions, and countries and regions including japan, korea, thailand, malaysia, and indonesia, etc. and experts and scholars from domestic government agencies and institutions. this year marks the tenth anniversary of the asian financial crisis. the world economy has undergone tremendous changes over the past ten years. it is of significance to conduct indepth discussion on policy - making and reform strategies in china ’ s financial opening - up against today ’ s backdrop of global economic imbalance, excess liquidity and increasingly changing financial market. 1. lessons we should learn from the asian financial crisis in july ten years ago, the attack on thai baht by the international hot - money triggered a large scale financial crisis, which severely damaged the economies of thailand, malaysia, indonesia, japan, korea, and china ’ s hongkong sar and taiwan province, and pulled asian countries into an economic and social turmoil. reflecting on the reasons behind asian financial crisis ten years later, we find lessons in many aspects. a country ’ s financial opening - up must suit status quo of its financial system. sound domestic financial system and healthy operations of the enterprises are the micro basis to forestall external shocks, thus we should effectively combine the processes of opening - up and internal reform. an orderly opening - up will help foreign and domestic financial institutions to influence and learn from each other. inefficiently managed opening - up and a fragile banking system will undermine financial stability. more efforts should be made to intensify monitoring on cross - border capital flows, in particular, short term capital flows. the abnormal flow of short - term speculative capital may lead to financial crisis. relevant countries should adopt exchange rate regime best suited its local characteristics. rigid and inflexible exchange rate regime will be an easy target