and in this regard, the government through the world bank funded financial sector technical assistance project ( fstap ), plans to automate trading on the exchange are at an advanced stage. it is envisaged that successful implementation of these projects will enhance market efficiency, improve market visibility and increase market liquidity. in addition to allowing efficient trading and settlement, the systems will enable surveillance and risk control by many market participants. another development in the pipeline is a central securities depository system for corporate equity and debt instruments to provide electronic issuance and custody of financial instruments to enable efficiency, reliability and security of the transactions in the market. i am in no doubt that as the government continues to pursue sound macroeconomic policies ; 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches coupled with implementation of the electronic systems and other capital market growth strategies pursued by market participants, the exchange and capital markets in general are poised to contribute to the growth and development of the economy. with these few remarks. i hope that i have earned the right to offer the registrar ’ s congratulations to the exchange on its 20th anniversary. allow me to acknowledge the commitment and hard work of the board of directors, management and staff of the exchange, and all the market participants for bringing the mse to where it is now. this anniversary celebration is well deserved. i wish all of you well. and may god bless malawi. i thank you. 4 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches

that sector, with much of investment focused on rural feeder roads and the growing of tobacco as a major foreign exchange earner. given limited private sector capacity at the time, government strengthened 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches admarc to become a major player in agriculture marketing including exporting of produce. make no mistake, the macroeconomic framework just described was made possible by a generous donor community that financed much of the external imbalances, thereby sustaining the kwacha as a strong currency among its neighbors. the price the country has paid in terms of failed economic diversification and entrenched import dependence is for another day. the advent of globalization championed by the wto and insured by the bretton woods institutions ushered in trade liberalization to underpin sustained global growth generally, and the developing world in particular. the so called washington consensus sealed the deal. malawi was not slow in adopting the prescriptions that followed. exchange controls began to be dismantled. however, unlike our zambians cousins who made a bold decision to completely liberalize the exchange rate in the mid - 1980s, malawi took a more cautious approach – we began by liberalizing imports of merchandise – while the kwacha exchange rate remained fixed but adjustable through a series of devaluations. on the monetary policy front, the central bank began to experiment with what we called indirect instruments of monetary policy through the control of monetary aggregates. that simply meant managing the central bank balance sheet through controlling lending to government and seeking to influence banking system liquidity and interest rates through the auctioning of treasury bills. indeed, interest rates were fully liberalized beginning 1989. the import liberalization process was completed by 1990. but when donors withdrew their aid in 1992, foreign exchange disappeared and in 1994 the kwacha was floated. but of course it got fixed again in 1995, in favor of a more managed exchange rate. those of you interested in the history of interest rates and exchange rate management in malawi can find that on our website ( www. rbm. mw ). the authorities recognized the need to accelerate private sector growth in order to diversify the economy and increase foreign exchange generation. but the need for long - term finance was then, as it is today, quite acute. the country required a framework that would allow companies to raise equity or risk finance as well as debt financing. the authorities therefore decided to deepen financial sector reforms and to create capital markets. it was in that context that the idea of establishing a stock