guy quaden : recent developments in the belgian economy speech delivered by mr guy quaden, governor of the national bank of belgium, on the occasion of the celebration of the national bank of belgium ’ s 150th anniversary, brussels, on 12 may 2000. * * * your royal highnesses, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, i should like to begin by telling you how delighted and proud i am, as are the other members of the board of directors and the council of regency of our bank. first, i am delighted to see so many friends of the national bank of belgium coming to brussels this afternoon to celebrate the 150th anniversary of our institution with us. friends who have come from belgium, elsewhere in europe, the rest of the world ; from the world of public and private finance, but also from the political, economic, social and academic world. allow me to express my special thanks to my colleagues and friends, the governors of the various groups to which the national bank of belgium belong : the european system of central banks, the g10, the belgian constituency at the international monetary fund. all are present or represented here. the world of central banks is exceptional because of its position at the boundary between the state and the markets, between action and deliberation, and between tradition and modernity, but it is also exceptional in the fellowship which prevails there. i am glad to be a part of that. next i would like to tell you how proud i am, how proud we are, of two things. first, we are proud to be the guardians of a long and illustrious history, the history of an institution which, as the prime minister reminded us in his speech and as the video we have just seen also showed, has made a positive and substantial contribution not only to the economic and financial history of belgium, but also to european unification and international monetary cooperation. in particular, i would like to pay tribute to the three people who have preceded me at the head of our institution, whom we are delighted to have here with us this afternoon : cecil de strycker, jean godeaux, alfons verplaetse. in the second place, we are proud that, right from the start, the national bank of belgium has become a member of the european system of central banks and more specifically the eurosystem, which, in managing the new common european currency, links the european central bank and the eleven national central banks which are currently members. this represents the

henrique meirelles : brazil - argentina local currency payment system speech by mr henrique meirelles, governor of the central bank of brazil, at the inauguration of the brazil - argentina local currency system, buenos aires, 2 october 2008. * * * it is an honor to attend today the launching of the brazil - argentina local currency payments system ( sml ). i am certain that this initiative will be a watershed in the bilateral relations between the two nations. coincidentally, the new system kicks off in a period of financial turmoil and liquidity crunch in international trade, in which cooperation among central banks becomes fundamental to facilitate trade and to deepen economic ties. central banks are responsible for ensuring adequate international payments systems. in processes of economic, financial and trade integration, the objective is to establish an efficient payments structure for intra - regional transactions. when flexible and unobstructed payments systems are available, trade transactions flow with greater ease and lower costs, and financial flows tend to intensify. this is what we expect from the new sml system. initial obstacles have been overcome. the mechanism of the sml will trigger significant changes in the way in which companies export and import. in brazil, exporters may now operate in real, while argentine businesspeople may operate in pesos. each one of our countries established a consistent framework for management of the system. the priority was to create a secure arrangement that will provide both exporters and importers with a simplified way to settle their transactions with a degree of ease similar to that with which they effect payments within their own countries. from this point forward, there is no doubt that the private sector will take it upon itself to create new financial products and further deepen the real - peso market. indeed, deepening of the real - peso market, reduction of trade obstacles and access on the part of small and medium exporters are the primary objectives of this initiative. despite noncompulsory, the facilities and lower costs of the sml should attract exporters and importers. there will be no foreign exchange contracts, despite documentation currently required will remain mandatory. the essential alteration for brazilian exporters will be the need to register the operation in real. with elimination of a third currency in direct transactions among companies, exporters will set their prices in the currency of their own countries. thus, they will be better able to calculate their margins precisely, since they will no longer be exposed to exchange rate risk. at the start,