Certainly, the Ancient Civilisations of Greece and Rome wrestled with the problem of how to deal with the consequences of workers displaced by technological advance. The responses then included large-scale public work programmes and income support policies for the needy. Indeed, they have an eerie echo in many of today’s public policy debates. The debate about technological unemployment really picked up pace in the 19th century, with the blossoming of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Then, it spilt over into the streets with worker protests and machine-breaking, most notably by the Luddite movement. These fears about technological displacement gathered intellectual support from no less a figure than the classical economist, David Ricardo (Ricardo (1821)). Yet the intellectual tide was by no means in one direction. It was accepted that technological advance could damage some workers in the short run. But its benefits to most workers in the longer-run were felt likely to dominate. In the middle of the 19th century, that view came to prominence through such figures as John Stuart Mill (Mill (1848)) and Karl Marx (Marx (1867)), two unlikely intellectual bedfellows. The technology debate was re-stirred in the 1930s, at the time of mass unemployment during the Great Depression. In his essay, “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren”, Keynes predicted on-going technological advance and workers being replaced by machines (Keynes (1930)). Yet far from being a threat, Keynes viewed this as a huge opportunity. He predicted that, by 2030, the average working week would have shrunk to 15 hours.

At the same time, the long-standing challenges to promote access to basic financial services and improve financial literacy of the people at large remain our priorities. For this reason, we need to redouble our efforts to enhance our banking, finance and technological know-how. We also need to make sure that a wealth of knowledge and experiences is effectively shared among members of the CLMVT. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  The last one is to leverage on specialized financial services that some of our members are ready to offer. For Thailand, progress has been made to create financial ecosystem to meet growing regional demand for specialized financial services. In the capital market, Thailand allows entities from CLMV countries to raise funds from the Thai capital market with the introduction of more accommodative rules on capital account and taxation. Since 2013, the Lao government and firms from Lao PDR have issued baht-denominated bonds, worth 28 billion baht in total, to support large-scale infrastructure projects. In addition, the Bank of Thailand supports multinational corporations operating in the region to establish regional treasury centers in Thailand. As of now, there are 13 companies holding Treasury Center licenses, of which 4 have been granted in the past 3 months. Ladies and Gentlemen, The work to develop domestic financial sectors and strengthen financial connectivity will always be a work in progress. The Bank of Thailand is committed to working with our counterparts in CLMV countries to develop the financial industry and enhance regional financial integration.