to crystallize the elements that investors look for : optimized product offerings, high returns, good governance and strong regulatory and legal frameworks. for the 2018 edition, three countries – angola, cameroon and senegal – joined the index, thus bringing the number of countries tracked to 20. the country measures were also broadened to include elements of financial inclusion and levels of investor education. south africa topped the index this year again, followed by botswana, kenya, mauritius and nigeria. while some may dwell on the fact that mauritius ranks fourth among the twenty countries, i invite them to examine the positive elements underlined in the report, and like we say, the glass can also be half - full rather than half - empty : the level of foreign exchange reserves which has grown substantially in mauritius. today, we have a level of gross official reserves of about usd6. 3 billion, representing nearly 10. 6 months of imports of goods and services, which we manage judiciously under a legal mandate of security, liquidity and, then, return. on that point, i would like to stress that mauritius is a notable exception with regard to investment in complex assets. as quoted in the report “ there is a wide range of investment options and relatively strong demand for more complex assets, including different types of derivatives products ’. [ unquote ]. the report commends mauritius for its strong legal and regulatory framework and highlights that mauritius is amongst the top countries as regards market depth, market transparency, tax and regulatory environment as well as the legality and enforceability of financial markets master agreements. 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches the africa financial markets index comes at an opportune time when positive changes are being witnessed on the domestic financial landscape. mauritius aims to double the size of its financial sector as spelt out in the government ’ s vision 2030 document and the financial sector blueprint. we have broadened the access to the purchase of government and bank of mauritius securities by the public. the development of a secondary market for risk - free instruments has helped individual investors to benefit from the increase in yields registered since the start of 2018. today, treasury bills and bonds are proving to be viable alternative investment instruments to term deposits. increased accessibility and enhanced public awareness has led to a three - fold increase in the amount of securities held by individuals, from rs1. 8 billion as at end - december 2017 to rs6 billion currently. you may recall that the african development bank along with bloomberg

positioning ourselves a notch or two higher on global financial markets and bringing to ourselves a share of the total incomes generated by the 270 trillion dollar global derivatives market. in addition to the scope that may thus be given to our financial market by fetching international derivative trades to our shores, we will be gradually building up, among business operators, core skills that accompany the development of the derivatives market in general. this is the context in which this workshop and others that will follow it assume a relevance of their own in defining a more diversified future profile of our financial market. i can then look forward to a strong spirit of innovation in developing financial market instruments in this context. this process will no doubt be reinforced by continuous training and the experience gained by our operators through actual operation on the markets. having encouraged you thus to engage in derivative trading to give greater scope to financial business undertaken from mauritius, we can consider the positive spinoffs this will result in as we progress in this area in the future. let us stop and take a look at the challenges of persevering in this line of action. it is generally acknowledged that derivative markets have a positive fallout on underlying markets in so far as they help to redistribute risk and increase market efficiency and liquidity. derivatives have become an indispensable part of a modern financial system and will so remain so long as uncertainties will have to be provided for. in the context of new capital standards being introduced currently for banks, credit derivatives are seen as risk mitigating factors against portfolio risk to the extent they serve to lower capital charges of banks. healthy financial sector development is thus supported by this activity if only by increasing the scope for risk management. the resulting control over volatility in portfolios of financial institutions has, in turn, the effect of improving the risk appetite of market participants for a higher volume of business. in one of shakespeare ’ s plays, it was said that “ security is mortals ’ chiefest enemy ” the size and speed with which derivative markets have grown in the recent past to overcome uncertainties have also given rise to certain apprehensions surrounding derivatives themselves. given also the totally liberalized markets of today, allegations have been made that derivatives would, in fact, be adding to market volatility. this has not been tested and proved. it is therefore not advisable to press down the growth and development of derivative markets and thus risk stifling their development due to such fears. as a regulator, the bank of