as well as the government ’ s personal income tax relief package announced in the february 2006 budget, should continue to sustain the expected growth momentum in real household spending. government also remains committed to its objective of generating long - term sustainable economic growth through its planned spending on public - sector infrastructure and deeper micro - economic interventions ( structural reforms ). government ’ s continued commitment to improve key infrastructure and social development programmes was highlighted emphatically in the president ’ s state - of - the - nation address to parliament earlier this year, when he announced that the accelerated and shared growth initiative of south africa ( asgisa ) would serve as catalyst to efforts to halve unemployment by 2014. under asgisa, large investments will be made in various sectors to improve infrastructure. the president announced a massive investment initiative and promised that government would tackle the skills shortages and speed up the process of achieving even higher levels of real economic growth. government intends investing r372 billion within three years in order to push economic growth to higher levels. business confidence levels generally remain upbeat and private - sector investment sentiment remains strong. this has probably been meaningfully supported by the announced increases in parastatal capital expenditure. the surge in business investment is also expected to translate into higher export volumes. a number of new projects in the mining of iron ore and gold have been identified and should commence in the medium term. vehicle manufacturers are in the process of expanding capacity and cement companies have also been expanding their capacity in order to meet the construction sector ’ s demand for cement. capital formation in the construction and commerce sectors should continue to benefit from robust domestic demand. in the 2006 / 07 budget several projects were announced which should boost real fixed investment by the general government in the medium to long term. these include : infrastructural development to improve the provision of water and sanitation ; construction of schools, clinics and provincial roads ; the upgrading of informal settlements ; the expansion of economic and transport infrastructure ; and capital expenditure in preparation for the 2010 fifa world cup. the work that is underway at transnet is absolutely central to the micro - economic story going forward. the comprehensive preparations for the world cup soccer tournament in south africa in 2010 should help to stimulate construction activity significantly i. e. via the anticipated investment in soccer stadiums and the expansion and upgrading of accommodation facilities. eskom, transnet and telkom also have exceptionally large capital projects in the pipeline and state - owned enterprises are projected to invest about r123 billion in capital

the achievement of our long - term sustainable economic growth and developmental objectives. given the growing interconnectedness of financial markets, international financial stability has become a global public good. despite governments, central bankers and regulatory bodies mainly operating in their respective jurisdictions, we need to recognise that some of the decisions we make in our own jurisdictions can have global reach. in order to achieve a stable global financial system, coordination and cooperation becomes important. our gathering here is one such form of coordination and cooperation towards the strengthening of our financial sector supervision and contributing towards a more resilient and safer global financial system. the interactions here, the sharing of ideas and experiences as well as the fostering of professional relationships will make the regulation of our financial sector better. financial sector development in africa the financial system in sub - saharan africa is generally bank based and somewhat less sophisticated than our developed country counterparts, with countries on different levels of development. however, there has been remarkable progress over the past two decades. while the emergence of non - bank financial institutions and other alternative sources of capital, such as stock markets has been noticeable, with the exception of a few, financial systems are still dominated by informal finance and traditional banks, most of which are state or foreign - owned. the banking sector in africa is undergoing reforms focused on privatisation and other forms of restructuring with respect to state - owned banks, with a view of improving the quality of the banks3. a review of the sub - saharan africa banking system published4 by the imf in 2013 makes the following observations : banking systems account for the preponderance of financial sector assets and activities ; the depth and coverage of financial systems – as measured by the ratios of broad money ( m2 ) and private sector credit to gdp – have been gradually increasing over the past decade, albeit from a low base ; the scale of financial intermediation in the region remains significantly lower than in other developing regions of the world ; access to financial services is also relatively low, reflecting a combination of low income levels, small absolute size, and infrastructure weaknesses ; 2 the economics student society of australia, julia pham, 2017 3 “ review african financial systems : a review ”, franklin allen etal, finance department, the wharton school, university of pennsylvania, 4 banking in sub - saharan africa : the macroeconomic context, montfort mlachila, seok gil park, and masafumi yabara, washington dc, imf, 2013 most banking systems are small in absolute and relative