without any success. ladies and gentlemen, we meet today at a challenging time with many headwinds going forward. the global economy is on a downhill path and financial turbulence continues to affect the masses across the globe. all this started in 2007 / 2008 as the private debt subprime crises related to the us housing market transformed into a systemic financial crisis that spread from the us to the euro area. more recently, this has turned into a sovereign debt crisis. the crisis, now in its fifth year, has morphed into a new phase of a political crisis. in the euro region, important steps have been taken to address the current problems. however, political differences within economies undergoing adjustment and among economies providing support have impeded achievement of a lasting solution. we have already witnessed causalities of these crises. similarly the political processes in the united states and japan are facing challenges in reaching consensus on medium term fiscal adjustments. what we have seen is a complete transformation resulting from the worst crisis of modern times. all these events have challenged the approach of financial leadership, business leadership, economic managers and political leaders. bis central bankers ’ speeches notwithstanding, we also have some bright spots in the form of emerging market economies with positive growth prospects. this is primarily because these economies have dealt with relatively more frequent, though small scale crises on their domestic fronts. of the advanced countries, australia and canada have been least affected by the global financial crisis because of their relatively stricter regulatory regimes and handson approach. the approaches of these economies and their leaders seem more practical and proactive, a trait necessary for leadership and a necessary part of a vision about the future. as mentioned earlier, this conference is significant in the sense that it comes at a time when the financial services sector across the world is in the midst of a crises. since the disruption has become acute, there is a debate over a number of issues relating to management and supervision of the financial services industry. in order to be effective, the concern and tone for risk management must start at the top. you would agree that while the management may get influenced by business targets and short term profitability, the board, representing owner ’ s perspective, always targets for long term viability and sustained growth of the bank. by virtue of this different perspective and its legal powers, the board is better positioned to enhance the role of risk management in a bank. that is why sbp has always emphasized the involvement of the board and made it accountable for establishing enterprise wide risk management

; now there are several contagion effects at different levels. bis central bankers ’ speeches so how do we address these challenges for a country like ours that is subject to exogenous shocks and maintain steady economic and social growth? our visionary business and political leaders must be alert to the challenges they face now and are likely to face in the future due to developments in other parts of the globe. on the domestic front, we need to manage our macro - economic fundamentals. both our economic and political leadership is faced with multiple challenges of trade imbalance, inflation, unemployment, power crises and security situation. the challenges for making good decisions on these fronts requires political will and a clear long term vision. there are no shortcuts to sustained economic development. we need to develop the right strategies and then translate these strategies into action. similarly the challenges for business leaders, though at a micro level, are by no means less critical. these challenges range from the survival of businesses in a stagnant business environment to developing strategies for further growth through developing new business models, new products or restructuring and re - engineering. we need to understand the issues and accept that in implementation we will make mistakes, but in the long run with continuous improvement we can be on the road to recovery. this is by no means an easy task. it is important to recognize the true nature of any problem, and develop workable solutions to these problems in a timely manner. leaders with perseverance and vision will tackle these issues successfully and emerge as the business leaders of today. effective leadership must also include skills to manage people and teams. management of human resources is extremely critical to the success of any business across the globe. an important challenge during difficult times is to ensure employees ’ performance is maintained at a high standard. owing a crisis, institutions must recognize they still need to retain their critical workforce. here i would like to underscore the importance of women representation in the work force. women represent almost half of the population of pakistan and a significant talent pool that is ignored. how can we as a nation progress if 50 % of our work force is in a non - productive capacity. given globalization and the crises we all face, let ’ s recap the traits of effective leadership that are universally applicable. leaders must be visionary to see future trends, anticipate institutional bottlenecks, remain competitive and be able to adapt rapidly to changes. they should be continuous learners, a necessity for enhancing leadership skills. leaders need also