The mandatory savings scheme was intended to inculcate in the beneficiaries the value of thrift as an integral part of making any sustainable livelihood 18 . This is because without learning how to save, an individual is unable to learn how to spend wisely. Accordingly, each member of the group was required to save per week a minimum of Rs. 5 19 in a group savings account which later served as an insurance against unexpected future eventualities such as family illnesses or crop or business failures. Group members were encouraged to meet in rotation in one of the member houses at least once a week so as to ensure group cohesiveness and facilitate member education programme. At these meetings, they were encouraged, guided by the change agent, to discuss among themselves freely why they were poor, what skills they were lacking for gainful enterprise, the working of the free market system and how they could benefit by being integrated to the market system. These meetings also gave them vital training on how they could conduct meetings democratically and listen to each other without being offended or having to embarrass others when a disagreeable opinion is made. Groups were chaired by a member who was also selected by rotation and records of group meetings were kept by a member who functioned as its secretary.
Eddie Yue: Hong Kong as an international financial center – the China factor Introductory remarks by Mr Eddie Yue, Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, at the “Hong Kong: China’s Global Financial Centre” conference, New York, 1 March 2011. *  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, It’s my great pleasure to be here today. No doubt I fully agree with Ms Leung and Mr Wheatley as they have rightly set out the key strengths of Hong Kong in serving as a financial hub in Asia. But I would also like to go deeper into the matter and focus on one very important factor, which may explain why more and more asset managers have been looking to set up their regional operations in Hong Kong. And this is the China factor – a unique competitive advantage of Hong Kong that is difficult for other financial centers to replicate. The China factor is growing in prominence as China continues with its path of very impressive growth: over the past three decades, Mainland China’s GDP has registered an amazing 29-fold increase, from around $ billion to more than $ trillion in 2010, with an average annual growth rate of 10%. Today, Mainland China is already the second largest economy in the world and the single biggest contributor to the world’s economic expansion, creating nearly one-fifth of the world’s newly generated economic activities. As an international financial center of China, Hong Kong stands to benefit the most from the country’s phenomenal development.