Jacqueline Loh: Strengthening Shanghai-Singapore cooperation – anchoring stability and seizing opportunities Welcome address by Ms Jacqueline Loh, Deputy Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the 3rd Singapore-Shanghai Financial Forum, Singapore, 12 April 2017. * * * Shanghai Municipal Government, Deputy Secretary General Mr Jin Xingming Shanghai Municipal Financial Services Office, Director General Dr Zheng Yang Distinguished Speakers and Guests Ladies and Gentlemen  Introduction 1 Good morning, and welcome to the 3rd Singapore-Shanghai Financial Forum. It is a great pleasure to welcome our good friends from Shanghai, as well as our strong representation of local stakeholders joining us at the forum today. Uncertainty is the New World Order 2 The second edition of the forum was held in November last year. Since then, global economic activity has firmed, led by robust consumption in the US and a pickup in China’s underlying growth momentum. The Eurozone and Japan have also registered steady expansions on account of stronger domestic demand and exports, respectively. Concurrently, the turnaround in commodity prices last year, followed by an IT upswing in Q4, have improved the prospects for emerging markets, including the trade-dependent economies here in Asia. A range of indicators have picked up in tandem with the strengthening of manufacturing and trade in the region, and forward-looking surveys reaffirm a continued mild improving trend into 2017. Within the region, domestic demand has generally been resilient and overall growth this year will receive additional support from the stronger performances of export industries.

3 Yet amid this cautious optimism, we should acknowledge the continued unevenness in the strength of the expansion across regions in the global economy, as well as the persistence of policy uncertainties, which will weigh on firms’ long-term spending commitments. We are also confronted with the seeming rise of nationalism and growing populism which can have unpredictable effects on policies and growth. Against this backdrop, the uncertainty over trade policies and the future of the multilateral trading system is another area of concern of trading nations in Asia, as it comes at a time when important underlying structural shifts in global production and trade arrangements are already taking place. 4 In the financial sector, the advent of FinTech – driven by unprecedented mobility, connectivity and computing power – possesses the potential to fundamentally change the way intermediation takes place in the financial sector. 5 Indeed, it seems that continuous shifts and unrelenting changes are the defining characteristics of the future economic and financial landscape. Finding Opportunities amidst Uncertainty 6 While some degree of uncertainty is inevitable in this environment, there remain several broad trends which will unfold and present opportunities which Shanghai and Singapore institutions can leverage together. 1/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  7 First, China’s future direction in financial sector deepening and liberalisation is clear. President Xi Jinping announced at the G20 Summit last year that China would continue with efforts to make the RMB an international currency and further internationalize China’s financial sector.