most valuable assets are public trust and confidence. therefore, we should always do whatever it takes to jealously guard it. we need to learn from recent encounters with financial sector crises, the recurrence of which we should do our utmost to prevent. we also need to draw some lessons from the global events, particularly from the asian and latin american financial crisis of the 1990s and the more recent wave of corporate financial scandals such as the collapse of enron, world com and a slew of others, and change the way we do things in nigeria. the world has become a global village, thus we have no choice other than to conform with international best practices. balancing stakeholders ’ interests and embracing good corporate governance practices are the prerequisites for attracting the much - needed foreign investment inflows that will help put the country back on the path of sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. it is noteworthy that the bankers ’ committee has taken up the challenge for ensuring high standard of behaviour, through the establishment of a code of ethics and professionalism in banking with a sub - committee for its enforcement. finally, distinguished participants, i am optimistic that you have a lot to gain by attending this seminar. i believe that the experts that have been assembled to handle the various sub - themes will do justice to them and will, in the process, also comprehensively address some of the issues raised in this keynote address and come up with recommendations that are implementable. mr. chairman, ladies and gentlemen, i have the honour and privilege to declare this seminar open. thank you for your attention.

’ s future, naturally if the countries concerned fail to take appropriate action. in the face of a challenge of this nature, it is crucial to implement the new version of the pact for stability and growth in a stringent manner. the pact is essential from the standpoint of the economic and monetary union ’ s cohesion, and in that connection it is one of the keystones of confidence in europe ’ s economic stability, thus one of the keystones of investment and growth. so it is necessary to work with determination on budget consolidation and on bringing down the public debt in order to take on the challenge of an ageing population and to safeguard the credibility of the european budgetary framework. mr president, ladies and gentlemen, europe is facing today five major challenges. three of them are major challenges that equally apply to all the long industrialised countries. the last two others are specific to europe and do not exist anywhere else in the world. the diagnosis is now clear as regards the first three challenges – the challenge of new technologies, the challenge of globalisation, the challenge of population ageing – which does not mean either that they are easy to solve … for the first challenge, facilitate the deepening and broadening in the whole economy of science and technology, in particular - but not only - of information technologies. for the second, organise the new economic framework stemming from the generalisation of the market economy and the very fast economic development of asian emerging countries. for the third, draw the consequences of population ageing in order to ensure the sustainability of public finances. the us, canada and other industrialised countries must tackle the same issues. but in addition – and this is a unique situation in the world, a privilege and at the same time a great historic responsibility – europe must face two other challenges. on one hand, europe has engaged into a long - term process aimed at ensuring its unity on the basis of a voluntary union between states. these states share in common some elements of their sovereignty and have already decided to create a single market with a single currency. this is a very ambitious historic transformation. on the other hand, europe must a the same time meet the challenge of a rapid geographic expansion of an immense historical magnitude. we were still 12 countries when the maastricht treaty was negotiated. we are now 25, and virtually already 27. in europe, are therefore intertwined a unique “ vertical ” economic and political transformation and a geographic “ horizontal ” expansion of an immense significance. five