and time taken for settlement by not having to route the transaction through third parties outside the comesa region and to enhance security of payments. this system is characterised by a t + 0 settlement, with possibility of real - time payment at higher fees. banks will access this payment system through their respective central banks. the bank of mauritius is earmarked to act as the settlement bank in the system. let me now touch on human resource infrastructure, which is of direct relevance to institutions like the university of technology mauritius ( utm ). human resource infrastructure the scarcity of skilled manpower could inhibit the development of the financial sector. in this regard the mauritian authorities have, rightly so, opened up the island to foreign talent. in addition, tertiary institutions have been designing a range of courses to meet the exigencies of the financial sector in terms of labour requirements. i am aware, for instance, that the utm has in the recent past set up courses in banking and finance at both undergraduate and graduate levels. the point i am making here is simple – academia has a key responsibility in safeguarding the sustainability of financial sector growth in mauritius. concluding remarks to conclude, i shall merely state that the bank of mauritius is committed to continue its leading role in the development of the mauritian banking and financial sector. thank you.

central bankers a decade earlier. 4. so here we are, at the start of 2013, facing the same questions as in preceding years : when shall we finally see an end to the global economic crisis and a sustained rebound in growth and job creation? as we start the new year, there are tentative signs that the global economy is finally picking up, with growth momentum building modestly and financial conditions becoming more supportive. but the transition is likely to be slow and fragile. even as we see some global growth, the legacy of subpar performance over the recent years is expected to play a major role in influencing investment and macroeconomic performance in general in 2013 and beyond. doubts persist over the sustainability of the timid recovery once the flood of central bank money, propping up economic activity in the advanced countries, begins to be withdrawn ― as it clearly must if we are not to see an unprecedented debasement of major reserve currencies, hand in hand with runaway inflation. 5. the mauritian economy for mauritius, the odds of surviving intact in the face of the global turmoil over the past five years were very thin at best. we have a small open economy, heavily dependent on exports to the european union, and we have been unable to rely significantly on regional or domestic demand to pick up the slack from depressed conditions in our traditional markets. nevertheless, we avoided recession and have come out rather well. key factors here were the support from the fiscal stimulus at the beginning of the crisis and an appropriately accommodative, but much - maligned, monetary and exchange rate policy that have together allowed the domestic economy to continue recording positive bis central bankers ’ speeches growth rates even as some major trading partner economies were contracting. the added adaptive advantage arising from our smallness proved to be a real asset in these troubled times. in addition, our closely - regulated banking system was not drawn into the seemingly very lucrative, but high - risk, operations that proved fatal to banks in many advanced economies and we have had no banking failures or bailouts. 6. it is evident, however, that our economy is still operating below its potential. the crisis has shown up the shortcomings of the inertia in much of our trade for both goods and services, where we have seemed locked into previously successful, but fragile, strategies that have left us at the mercy of external market and policy failure. while the lesson has been learnt, many sectors have been caught wrong - footed and are now scrambling to