per cent. over half of the comesa members are in the process of opening accounts. the live - mode pilot earlier this month ( october ) has proved a success. and i trust, before the year is out, all our central banks will have signed up as full participating members. for repss is not only the springboard for further liberating trade within the region, but also the point from which we can make that final leap from convergence to monetary union. it is an essential point for the take - off for us to emulate in africa the economic and commercial achievements of our partners in europe, whose proven experience is a continuing source of inspiration to us. this process of institutional capacity - building is essential for promoting overall regional development. this was indeed the foundation of the prosperity of the european common market, as it picked itself up in the 1950 ’ s, and provided regional support to the poorest countries so that they could also step up as local partners and develop the wider market. post - war europe and our neck out of the woods have this much in common. regional integration under comesa offers a valid way through some of the global challenges that confront us. who can deny the enormous synergy packed in a regional group like comesa, with its combined market access of more than 415 million people? the larger economic space is already encouraging increased inter - and intra - regional trade. in 2008, intra - regional trade within comesa stood at over us $ 15 billion ; it has more than doubled since 2003, and quadrupled during the decade. moreover, with repss, we not only offer faster settlement of payments but we also cut the transaction costs by more than a half, thus giving a further boost to trade. with repss in place, each member - state will have cheaper access to bigger markets and with the common investment area, it will stimulate foreign direct investment in our region. it will help to diversify our productive export base. this must go hand in hand with progress towards the achievement of the millennium development goals on poverty, education, gender challenges, better health, a sustainable environment and more effective partnership for sustainable development. exploiting the economies of regional scale is already strengthening our national resilience to exogenous shocks, reducing the prevalence of conflicts, enhancing our voice in international fora, and improving our terms of trade with other regions, on top of expanding intra - regional trade. in this process, the monetary cooperation programme, ultimately to achieve the goal of

1 per cent in 2010. by comparison, the prospect for the usa in 2009 is that it remains in recession throughout this year, along with the rest of the developed world. africa thus stands out with the promise of substantial positive growth this year along with china, australia, india, indonesia and a few others. our prospects for 2010 are thus up with the leaders in the world. in mauritius, there are abundant signs of continuing economic improvement – growth remains positive, inflation is down, we have an overall surplus in our balance of payments, net international reserves are at a historical high – all indicators showing a genuine capacity for resilience in the face of unprecedented external shocks. most of all, the crisis has been grasped by mauritians as an opportunity to open new dimensions in development, not least confronted as we are with the impact of climate change. the vice prime minister and minister of finance and economic empowerment, whom we are pleased to have with us this morning, will be presenting the nation ’ s budget later next month and he has already announced that “ shaping the recovery ” will be his main thrust. this is all in the spirit of the national strategy of “ maurice ile durable ”, the policy for securing sustainable development, announced last year by our prime minister at the united nations general assembly. mauritius, with many friends from africa, will be asserting our case at the copenhagen meeting on climate change. allow me, fellow - governors, to place on record our gratitude to the bureau of the comesa committee of governors of central banks and to the secretary - general of comesa for their support to mauritius as we offered to host one of the two new african technical assistance centres which the imf is establishing in africa. as we know, mauritius has now been chosen as the location for afritac ( south ) and the bank of mauritius must now make up for lost time and refurbish its former offices to accommodate this centre to make it operational as rapidly as possible. so, fellow - governors, thank you very much for trusting us with this important assignment. we welcome the decision from the tripartite summit of comesa, in kampala in october, that the three african regional economic communities should work together towards a single free trade area, with fast - tracking the attainment of the african economic community, as first envisaged in the treaty of abuja in 1991. institutions that we have set up in years past – some of which go back to pre - comesa days –