Some of the issues, observations and suggestions raised during the course of the panel were as follows:

• Professor Nkuhlu indicated that efficient monetary management and established standards on budgetary deficits require capacity building at the central bank and financial institutional levels. He noted that dependence on external debt should be reduced and Africans should be further encouraged to keep savings in their country of residence. He encouraged a reduction and servicing of debt, with a focus on HIPC.
  
  
• Dr Hussain suggested that there was a link between savings and exports and that the African countries needed to work on competitiveness as well as export promotion.
  
  
• Minister Trevor Manuel cited that 33% of collective GDP in South Africa is in savings; however US$360billion (that is 40% of the wealth of South Africans) was offshore. Mr Manuel indicated that this trend, which is a commentary on the local financial markets, needed to be reversed. Minister Manuel indicated that South Africa has been able to achieve strides towards domestic resource mobilization through improving tax collection and administration, which enabled the reduction of corporate tax from 48% to 30%. The country has also introduced a capital gains tax. It has therefore been able to exceed budgeted revenue collection for the past 6 years and would discourage other countries' "capricious tax application."
  
  
• Minister Manuel further indicated that the financial markets should have more regional integration and that this was the initiative of the Financial Integration Task Force. He noted that "FDI flows tend to be lumpy" and discouraged the dependence on foreign capital flows for economic development.
  
  
• Governor Linah Mohohlo of Botswana discussed that systematic money management was the strength of the Bank of Botswana's team where a "trader's mind" was instilled. Furthermore, Governor Mohohlo indicated that central banks should never be viewed as profit centers since this distracts them from their primary duty of money management. Specific tips were given on money management such as matching liabilities with the maturity of the instruments; and having an investment portfolio with an emphasis on liquidity. The Bank of Botswana currently has 95 fund managers who manage 50% of the reserves. The countries offer incentives in order to put a check on the "brain drain" and insist on skills transfer from their fund managers. Governor Mohohlo noted that central banks should also be designing their own benchmarks.
  
  
• Alhaji Bamanga Tukur from the ABR indicated that more emphasis needed to be played on the public sector regulatory reforms since they impact the private sector debt management. Alhaji Tukur proactively promoted the implementation of the public and private sectors' goals together as opposed to working at cross-purposes which is so often the case.
  
  
• Dr. Hussain then raised the issue of the cost of NEPAD. Dr Hussain indicated that the ADB had grouped countries by their ability to administrate aid. The research had indicated that only 3 countries were capable of doing so and that the ADB had proposed a sum of US$24 billion in order to accommodate their objectives. This indicates the massive mobilization required to achieve NEPAD's objectives.
  
  
• Dr. Ken Kwaku of MIGA recognized the need for external support in order to attract the population to pay taxes and develop a civic pride as well as in bringing Africans' money back into Africa, speaking to the African diaspora.

An open question and answer session followed that the panelists'comments.

• The Deputy Minister of Finance of Botswana confirmed that money needed to be brought back into Africa, but noted that the financial markets needed to be enhanced through more instruments in order to do so. Trevor Manuel cited the problem of non-accountability of fund managers, and their ignorance that better returns were offered in many African Stock Exchanges rather than the NASDAQ.
  
  
• Ms. Arunma Oteh, the Treasurer of the ADB, asked how to support the local capital markets particularly in the fixed income instruments. She noted that the regulatory environment in Africa did not encourage cross-border debentures.
  
  
• The Minister of Finance of Zimbabwe asked if the US$88billion presently being held by the African Central Banks would be committing part of this to NEPAD. This comment was in response to Dr. Hussain's question of costs.