Ladies and gentlemen, It is my firm belief that these four guiding principles will be key to building a sustainable digital finance ecosystem that will strengthen the value of our financial network—the network that will eventually lead to a better society through improvements in productivity, inclusivity, and immunity. In doing this, close collaboration among key stakeholders within our financial system is crucial. And this is why “Collaboration for the Future of Finance” has been selected as the theme for the 2019 Bangkok FinTech Fair. The 2019 Bangkok Fintech Fair presents an exciting venue for stakeholders to learn from leaders of financial innovation on different aspects of collaboration—from the art of multiple-stakeholder engagement to the various types of partnership. The panel discussions will highlight how collaboration can help benefit customer experience, improve financial inclusion, and advance competitiveness of our digital finance ecosystem. You will also learn of many exciting new innovations from the Technology Talk room, the ASEAN FinTech Connectivity room, as well as booth presentations throughout our venue. I would like to thank our speakers, participants, and the audience for your presence at the 2019 Bangkok Fintech Fair. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our partners and the Bank of Thailand staff for their tremendous and tireless efforts in organizing this event. The Bank of Thailand looks forward to working closely with all of you to create the digital finance ecosystem in Thailand and ASEAN that encourages innovation and close collaboration among stakeholders. Thank you very much for your participation.

These include Thai banks’ aim to reduce cash usage and payment cost, leading to collective investment in the new faster pay infrastructure; banks’ and non-banks’ leveraging on the interoperability of our open infrastructure and common standards to compete and expand the range of products and services; and regulators’ and policy agencies’ active roles in promoting financial innovations and digital adoption. FinTech and digital finance have been and will continue to be among the top policy agenda of the Bank of Thailand. We need to further develop digital finance infrastructure, promote innovation, enable dynamic competition, and enhance adoption by the Thai people and businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, While technology advancement and technology adoption will remain crucial, there is another important aspect of financial services that we must not forget as we move on with our FinTech agenda: the value of financial network. Unlike other products and services, financial services will serve the people and the society best only when money—either in the form of physical cash or digital money—can freely flow without cost and friction. In today’s digital world, it is equally important that individuals and society can benefit from financial transaction  2  data. Therefore, preserving and strengthening the value of financial network will be imperative in advancing the development of our financial system. On the opposite end of a strong financial network is fragmentation, whereby financial systems and payment services become fragmented by the use of different core infrastructures or different standards that are controlled by a few dominant players.