money market. in an effort to enhance market liquidity, improve the price - discovery process, and develop a more effective transmission of policy decisions, the bank re - introduced over - the - counter sales of bills and treasury notes on 24 july. the number of primary dealers was also increased from five to eight to spur more competition in the secondary market. a total of rs306 million of bills and notes have been sold over the counter to date. for comparison, since january, bills sold on the stock exchange totalled rs118 million. generally, the outcome of the measures to develop the secondary market has been fairly moderate but it constitutes a basis to build upon in the coming year. with a view to assisting the bank to achieve its objectives, and given that real sector issues play an important part in monetary policy decisions, the bank embarked in september on a series of consultations with private / real sector stakeholders to gauge their perceptions with regard to specific issues, such as the evolution of the main macroeconomic indicators, labour market developments, access to finance, and to identify the domestic and external constraints they face. the bank intends to maintain regular contact with stakeholders of the real sector as we need to weigh real sector issues more adequately in our policy decisions. the implementation of basel ii by the march 2008 deadline constituted another major challenge for the bank this year. substantial progress was made in 2007 towards the implementation of the standardised approach to credit, market and operational risks. the bank has tried to adapt the basel ii framework to the specificities of the mauritian banking sector, which is set to benefit substantially from the new capital adequacy framework. the bank adopted a collaborative approach with commercial banks for the implementation of basel ii, with working groups comprising both central bank and commercial bank officers. a special banking committee meeting was held in september to review the implementation of basel ii by banks, which seem well poised to meet the set deadline. although we are still at an early stage on this long journey, improvements in the risk management systems of banks have already been noted as the requirements of basel ii are gradually being applied by banks. it is expected that basel ii compliance will create the required platform for improving business decisions and increasing competitiveness in the sector. in this perspective, and taking into consideration changes in international accounting standards and the legal framework, the bank has been reviewing its guidelines to enable a more effective capture of risk management and market disclosure. the challenge of basel ii has necessitated the training of staff in basel

better positioned to capture these opportunities. with technology transforming activity across financial markets, the profile of jobs in finance will change in the years to come. through the institute of banking and finance, mas is working with the industry on an enhanced set of desired competency standards to grow the pipeline of skilled talent ready to service the growth in capital markets in asia. 24. i hope i have touched on the key themes and issues that you will be discussing over these two days, and may i wish you a most fruitful conference ahead. 25. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches