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

bank financial institutions suggests that a liberal view of what commercial banks are allowed to do is appropriate from the standpoint of financial market development. on the other hand, prudential objectives often favour restricting bank activities to traditional commercial banking – taking deposits and making loans – where the risks are at least relatively well understood. the ugandan banking legislation – the financial institutions act – generally restricts banks to the traditional bank activities. for example, the financial institutions act does not allow banks to engage in the insurance business nor does it allow banks to underwrite shares or act as a securities broker or to deal in securities on their own account, other than for government or bank of uganda securities. i believe that there is a strong case for allowing banks to offer to their customers financial products for which there is a clear market demand from the household and the corporate sectors, provided that this does not undermine prudential standards and, critically, that the risks of these activities can be understood and managed. as such the bank of uganda has recommended to the government that the financial institutions act should be amended to allow banks to provide “ bancassurance ” and islamic financial products, and if these amendments are enacted by parliament the bank will issue prudential regulations applicable to these products. i hope that this will promote the growth of the insurance market and the market for islamic financial products, which should benefit bank customers in the real sectors of the economy. permitting banks in uganda to offer these products will also align the ugandan banking laws with those in other african countries which have already moved, or are moving, in a similar direction. we should be much more cautious about liberalising our banking legislation to allow commercial banks to engage in proprietary securities trading or brokerage activities. as the global financial crisis has demonstrated, proprietary trading carries potentially large risks for banks ; risks both to the value of their assets and to their liquidity. furthermore, a banking system which is heavily engaged in proprietary trading may be more vulnerable to systemic risk, because of the pro - cyclical impact of marking securities to market and because of the heightened liquidity risks created by proprietary trading. moreover, as was made clear by the global financial crisis, it is very difficult to quantify market and liquidity risk of this nature, which is partly endogenous to the financial system ; financial institutions tend to underestimate these risks and often have powerful incentives to do so if trading activities are very profitable. it is also less evident that all of the proprietary trading activities of