samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
The Kijang Emas Scholarship is distinct from the Kijang Scholarship in that the recipients are given the freedom to pursue any field of study at top universities in any country of their choice. The Bank also does not impose any bond on the recipients except that they return, contribute and partake in the development of our nation. To date, 44 high potential talent have been awarded the Kijang Emas Scholarship. The recipients have graduated or are currently pursuing their studies in diverse fields of study including Medicine, Engineering, Law, Economics, Dietetics, Actuarial Science, Accounting, Dentistry, Biochemistry, Genetics, Architecture, Psychology and Geophysics in top universities around the world such as MIT, University of Pennsylvania and the University of Cambridge. Thus far, 11 Kijang Emas scholars have completed their undergraduate studies and have returned to serve the nation, while another seven scholars are expected to complete their studies in the next six months. For the 2015 Kijang Emas Scholarship, we received a total of 212 applications from top SPM students scoring straight A+ for their 2014 SPM. From this, the Bank shortlisted the top 24 students based on their SPM results and also on their level of involvement in co-curricular and sports activities. The students then underwent a rigorous evaluation process under the Bank’s “Kijang Academy” which assessed their technical and leadership competencies, as well as their values. We are pleased to award four outstanding students the Kijang Emas Scholarship this year. Having just completed their SPM, they will be enrolled into the respective pre-university programmes.

Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Creating a sustainable pool of talent for Malaysia Speech by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the Kijang Emas Scholarship Award Ceremony, Kuala Lumpur, 30 April 2015. *  *  *  In preparing for the future, a future that is going to be fundamentally different from the current environment, talent development has become more important than ever before. The environment before us is rapidly changing and is continuously becoming more interconnected, more complex and certainly more competitive. It is also becoming more uncertain and unstable. Malaysia has, however over several decades, demonstrated time and again our ability to face the challenges arising from these transformative changes, supported by our resilience and strong foundations. Human capital makes up a critical component of these foundations. Developing the talent that we have and making greater investments in our talent pipeline will contribute to generating the development of our future leaders that will be able to effectively operate in this new environment. Education and capacity building to generate the new talent with the right skills, mindsets and values, as well as effective talent development strategies and their implementation, have now become key priorities of the nation. The Kijang Emas Scholarship Award is an eminent scholarship award that is part of the Bank’s commitment to creating a sustainable talent pool for the nation.
According to one theory, similar mechanisms could emerge in response to an asymmetrical policy vis-à-vis asset prices. If central banks took action to stop asset prices falling below a certain level, the players in financial markets might attach less importance to a rigorous analysis of economic fundamentals. The strategy of waiting for bubbles to burst by themselves might then establish a climate that actually encouraged bubbles. This must of course be regarded as an unproven but interesting theory, and it certainly calls for a great deal more careful thought. Conclusion In my speech today I have dealt with some issues that at the moment are being debated particularly in the USA. This is not due to a special interest in developments in the USA but because the conditions 5  BIS Review 128/1999  under which monetary policy is pursued in the USA and Sweden are quite similar. Many of the problems and issues that are being addressed there are also of interest here, or may be so in the future. Therefore I feel that we have something to learn from them. As I see it, one important lesson is that monetary policy, at least today, should take a greater interest in the “long boom” than the “new economy”.

In other words, I think that it is a wiser basic strategy to concentrate on making sure that the economy does not overheat - which leads to recessions - than to count on large hypothetical improvements in future productivity which, if they do not materialise, will involve loss of credibility and a drastic slowing down of the economy similar to those we have so often witnessed in the last couple of decades. I have also discussed various aspects of fluctuations in asset prices. One encouraging conclusion that I think we can draw in this connection is that the present monetary policy framework in Sweden, with built-in inflation targets, provides a reasonable basis for tackling any problems that may arise. BIS Review 128/1999  6
This annual expansionary fiscal impact poses a challenge to stabilisation policy in general and monetary policy in particular. Underlying real expenditure growth has exceeded mainland GDP for the last 4 years. Nominal growth in 2002 is 7 per cent. (The deflator, mainly wages, is 4½ per cent). Measured as a share of GDP, public expenditure is growing rapidly. In 2002 alone, this share will increase by some 2½ percentage points. According to the Revised National Budget, an increase in expenditure of 7 per cent this year will lead to an estimated growth in public sector consumption of only 1½ per cent. The rest will be spent on government transfers and wage growth. This is consistent with close adherence to the new fiscal guidelines. The new guidelines for fiscal and monetary policy were introduced simultaneously, and are not independent of each other. Fiscal policy is geared towards the phasing in of oil revenues; monetary policy has been given a more explicit responsibility for macroeconomic stabilisation. Monetary policy is to be oriented towards low and stable inflation. The inflation target is set at 2½ per cent. Monetary policy affects the economy with considerable and variable lags. The key rate is set on the basis of an overall assessment of the inflation outlook two years ahead. If it appears that inflation will be higher than 2½ per cent with unchanged interest rates, the interest rate will be increased.

BIS central bankers’ speeches  As I mentioned before, in addition to improvements in the existing Libor interest rates, the FSB also proposes that alternative benchmark interest rates be developed. In Switzerland, alternative interest rates for very short-term Swiss franc transactions already exist. An example of these on the secured money market is SARON,2 which is the basis for the interest rate curve on the Swiss franc repo market. On the unsecured market we have the TOIS3 fixing, which is related to transactions in the area of call money and is used for interest rate derivatives. However, reforms were also necessary for the TOIS fixing. Consequently, new standards have been in place since 1 October. These are in line with international requirements and have resulted in a number of enhancements, including improvements to supervisory structures and codes of conduct. For these benchmark rates, too, the underlying transaction volume is currently very low. Foreign exchange benchmarks I will now turn my attention to benchmarks on the foreign exchange market. On the international financial markets, currencies are traded around the clock. There are no final rates for any given day. Given this situation, benchmarks on the foreign exchange market provide numerous investors, such as investment funds or asset managers, with a basis which they can use for uniform valuation of their portfolios. One of the best-known benchmarks is the WM/Reuters fix, which is set daily at 4.00 pm, London time; it is calculated as the median of actual foreign exchange transactions conducted within the period of one minute.
Another initiative of the Bank of Thailand to promote digital payment services is the Thai standard QR code for payment. The Standardized QR Code makes epayment seamless across platforms regardless of which bank or non-bank service provider merchants and consumers are using. In just eight months since its implementations, more than two million merchants in Thailand now accept epayment through QR code, and this figure will continue to grow. Having a common standard for QR code will indeed generate benefits beyond payment convenience. The common standard will help ensure that no incumbent service providers has an advantage of locking merchants with their QR formats, and allow new and innovative payment service providers to easily enter the market. The standard will also help facilitate the move towards information-based lending for SMEs as their payment transaction information can be consolidated. Given that the payment standard was developed together with five global credit card companies using EMVCo, it could serve as a platform to enhance financial connectivity in the region. Thai banks and payment service providers have begun to work with partners in our neighboring countries to facilitate cross-border payments using the standardized QR code. This standardized QR code was a product that went through the Bank of Thailand’s regulatory sandbox. Going forward, there are a few high-impact 7/10  technologies or applications which are being developed and tested in the Bank of Thailand’s regulatory sandbox. The first one is an extension of our standardized QR code to include other means of payment, including credit card.

In addition to the EEC Act, various legal amendments and process improvements were implemented over the past couple of years to improve the ease of doing business in Thailand and ensure that laws can be adjusted to accommodate new business practices in a timely manner. With these reforms, Thailand’s position in the World Bank’s Doing Business Ranking improved from 46th in 2017 to 26th in 2018, and we should continue to see further improvements in the ease of doing business in Thailand going forward. Another important development, which provides a strong foundation for digital economy, is the nationwide broadband internet project. Over the past years, the project has brought fiber optics network to almost 25,000 villages in remote parts of the country, enabling access to free-WiFi hotspots as well as home broadband at affordable prices. As such, human capital development can improve greatly through better access to online information, remote education, and online healthcare services. Business opportunity can also be greatly expanded with greater access to online marketing platforms and more cost-effective communication tools. This new and expanded online connectivity is a critical milestone which will bring economic opportunity and productivity to people in the rural area whose potential has been limited by the previous lack of supportive infrastructure to connect with the modern world. Ladies and gentleman, Let me now turn to Bank of Thailand’s initiatives to help uplift Thailand’s longterm competitiveness.
In contrast, the ratios today stand at 31 percent and 27 percent, respectively. In terms of product mix, the economy neither depends on a specific commodity nor on a particular manufacturing sector. This has allowed for growth and  6/9  development of new industries to serve both domestic and external demands. Certainly, efforts to attract new investments in the EEC area will further enhance our ability to diversify, with establishment of industries of the future. The tourism industry is another well-diversified sector. With many unique destinations and attractions, the tourism industry is able to cater to wide range of customers in term of pricing and activities—from luxurious wellness centers for medical tourists to affordable accommodations for first-time foreign travelers. In fact, recent tourist patterns may have indicated that there is no longer low season in Thailand. The number of incoming foreign tourists has become relatively stable throughout the year with different mixes across different seasons. More importantly, given the choice of attraction and selection of price range, Thailand is in a unique position to attract many first-time foreign tourists, especially those rising middle class from China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Last but not least is the ability for the economy and Thai people to adapt to change. The notion of adaptability is important for economic resilience not just to respond to adverse events and uncertainties but also to cope with disruptive changes, especially against the backdrop of changing landscape brought about by technological advancement.

On the other hand, trade diversion can lead to increased competition within Thailand as excess supplies of goods from China are diverted to the Thai market and priced at discount to compete with local products. Besides, prolonged uncertainties surrounding trade measures had led to unusual front-loading of exports in 2018 and will weigh on export growth in 2019—just when the global demand has begun to moderate. It can also impair business sentiments, preventing firms from taking on new investment projects. Ultimately, as the US-China trade disputes remain unresolved and the US’s inclination for further trade  1 Both products make up less than 1 percent of Thailand’s total exports  3/9  protectionism remains, such as potential US auto tariff measure, trade disputes will certainly be the key concern for all authorities. (2) Slowdown in the Chinese economy is another concern. While the slowdown may be in line with the Chinese authorities’ goal of restructuring the economy towards a long-run sustained growth model, in the short-term it can have significant impact on the Thai economy. This is because of high degree of linkages in terms of supply chain and production networks, tourism, and property investment. For instance, China is Thailand’s second largest export partner following the ASEAN region, making up about 12 percent of our exports in term of value while the Chinese tourists represent nearly 30 percent of total foreign tourists.
8  By construction, an event study approach can only capture the short-run elasticity of substitution. The medium to longer terms effects may be somewhat less as further portfolio rebalancing takes place. BIS Review 111/2010  11  that the efficacy of the latter will be less in normal times. The theoretical case for an effect from asset purchases rests on there being frictions that prevent the Eggertsson-Woodford neutrality result holding. During a financial crisis, when credit is hard to come by, arbitrageurs may find it difficult to find the wherewithal to correct any excessive compression of the spread between government bond yields and expected policy rates. During normal times, such credit will be easier to come by and the activities of arbitrageurs may therefore lead to the attenuation of the effectiveness of asset purchases as a monetary policy tool. Third, while purchases of government debt may be a suitable last resort at the ZLB, regular purchases during normal times will be liable to give rise to the suspicion that the central bank is doing so at the behest of the government in order to lower the cost of budgetary finance, rather than for monetary policy purposes. In other words, it is intending to monetise the debt permanently. Aside from giving rise to doubts about the central bank’s independence, it could also prompt inflation expectations and long-term nominal interest rates to rise. The communication challenge for a central bank in these circumstances would be formidable.

Joint EU integration would supersede certain regional integration frameworks, such as trade and factor mobility, but it would not supplant the need for further policy dialogue and common regional perspectives and solutions. Let me now to briefly describe the role of institutions in structural reforms in Albania. Institutions and structural reforms in Albania It is virtually impossible to do justice to the breadth and depth of reforms in Albania over the limited allotted time. Therefore, I will try to highlight only its main items. In order to improve our business environment, the Albanian authorities have engaged in comprehensive reforms of the property rights, of the tax regime, of the electricity sector, of the general infrastructure, and remain engaged in the fight against informality. The most recent measure in this regard is a banking sector regulation that aims to put an end to the practice of lending through uncertified company balance sheets. Further, to enhance efficiency and tackle corruption and informality, a determined drive to improve the functioning of the public administration, which broadly speaking encompasses also the judicial system reform, has been undertaken. In order to increase economic stability and to improve financial resilience, we have initiated a wide ranging set of reforms. To that end, the Government has improved its public finance management procedures, has adopted a fiscal responsibility framework, and has undertaken measures to reduce debt. The Bank of Albania has strived to model itself after the ECB. Its professionalism has increased while its independence, transparency and credibility have all improved.
The strategies pursued have involved using the least possible amount of public funds, concentrating on cleaning up bank balance sheets by demanding additional provisions, raising capital requirements, encouraging mergers, transforming savings banks and improving their governance, reducing capacity, increasing efficiency by bolstering the size of banks, making the worst managed banks disappear and minimising the time the State has a presence in banks in which it had to intervene. The results mean we can be encouraged by what we see Spain has been able to do during these difficult years of crisis. As regards cleaning up bank balance sheets, since late 2007 to the end of last year provisions have been increased by € billion. Once this year, thanks to the recent legislation, an additional write-down of € billion is completed, a figure of € billion will have been reached, namely 14% of GDP. As regards capitalisation, deposit institutions have during this period increased their capital both in absolute terms and in relation to their assets, thanks partly to the fact that the legislation passed in 2011 and 2012 has imposed on Spanish banks capital requirements greater than those required by the Basel III calendar. As regards capacity, although the plans are not complete, there have been reductions of 12% in the number of branch offices and 10% in the number of staff, with sharper falls at savings banks (of the order of 16% and 13%, respectively).

Since 2013, and in addition, naturally, to our contribution to the preparatory work, we have been working hard at the Banco de España in two directions: a)  first, to adapt our structure to the new needs; and  b)  second, to encourage the presence of experts from the Banco de España at the ECB. A few weeks ago a reform of the Directorate General Banking Supervision was approved, designed to create a structure that mirrors that of the ECB, to facilitate interaction between the two authorities and achieve efficient management of resources. The new organisation replicates the arrangements envisaged by the ECB: two departments will be responsible for ongoing supervision of the significant banks, a third will be responsible for the less significant banks, and a fourth will perform the so-called “horizontal” tasks, in addition to on-site inspections of the significant banks. To underpin the position of the Banco de España’s representatives on the SSM’s governing bodies, a new SSM Coordination Service was created in February , which will be responsible for analysing and monitoring non-Spanish significant banks. Regarding the Spanish presence in the SSM, our experts have been very successful in the ECB selection processes, both at senior management and junior analyst levels, which testifies to their excellent qualifications and vast experience.
In the last quarter of the year, there was a positive contribution of the external sector to annual GDP growth of more than 2 pp. In under two years, external financing requirements might have halved. Further, in December last year, the Spanish inflation rate stood at 1.5%, a substantially lower figure. And since then inflation has continued falling and the difference with the euro area countries, now in our favour, has improved to stand at 0.5 pp last month. Nonetheless, such a rapid adjustment of the external deficit and of inflation, centred predominantly as it is on the contraction of demand, activity and employment, entails very high costs. In social terms, the ranks of the unemployed have swollen to around 3.5 million. 2  BIS Review 43/2009  The productive structure is also being affected through the closure of numerous firms, just as the budgetary position is worsening notably under the pressure of more social benefit disbursements and the contractionary effects on revenue due to the fall-off in activity. Uncurbed, all these factors will bear heavily and adversely on our ability to overcome the crisis. Accordingly, all tiers of government and social agents - central, regional and local government, Parliament and the regional assemblies, employers' associations, trade unions, institutions, etc. - should join forces in identifying the measures and action needed to resume as swiftly as possible a sustained growth path, and implement them with the utmost determination and diligence.

For Spanish firms producing final goods and services to be able to compete on an equal footing with other developed countries, it is crucial that those industries providing a large portion of the inputs these branches require should reduce their inefficiencies as far as possible. Among energy utilities, for instance, the degree of vertical and horizontal integration remains very high and interconnections with other countries are not advancing quickly enough. In the telecommunications market, it is vital to step up competition in Internet access in order to reduce the related costs and spread its use. Turning to the transport sector, the National Competition Board has highlighted the presence of numerous restrictions to competition in the area of road haulage licences. In the railway sector a regulator has yet to be created, six years after Parliamentary legislation was passed to this end. Moreover, the boost to railway freight transport that access to new private operators would provide would also help us meet environmental commitments. Also, we must not delay any longer the development of a new airport management model. And let us not forget to harness the magnificent opportunity the EU Services Directive has given us to do away with all national and regional obstacles persisting in the services industry and which are a drag on our growth.