In this light, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) has included financial access as our urgent aspect in the current BOT’s financial master plan. 11. Secondly, on ecology, we heed the lesson of how to progress while ensuing to environmental sustainability. After the rapid development stage in Thailand, ecological problems have become more prevalent. Concerns have been raised over the sustainability of ecology and, more fundamentally, the socio-economic well-being of the people. 12. Today, effort has been made to maintain the balance between the ecology and growth. For instance, environmental protection and sustainable development have been included as an integral part of Thailand’s National Development Plan since 1997. However, the goal of ensuing environmental sustainability cannot be easily established. And I hope that today’s conference will also examine the environmental sustainability while focusing on growth and inclusiveness. 13. Lastly, on the stability of financial system, the lessons that can be appropriately derived from Thailand’s experiences are on external imbalances and the effects on financial institutions. The 1997 financial crisis was originated from large capital inflows. Between 1992 and 1996, Thai economy had attracted massive volumes of capital inflow of more than 355 billion bahts from abroad. At that time, the volatile international capital flows went into our financial system and increased the system’s vulnerability. The crisis then erupted when there was a sudden and large capital outflow, which during 1997–1999 amounted to some 389 billion bahts. What followed is the closing down of numerous financial institutions as well as the economic slump. 14.

BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  7. Here, it is worth noting that the three prerequisites for sustainable and equitable growth should be properly addressed. They are (1) social inclusion, (2) ecology and, (3) the stability of financial system. Any kind of disruption in any of these fundamentals can jeopardize sustainable and equitable growth. Thus, today, lessons that will be drawn from the development experiences of Thailand shall be focused on these three fundamentals. 8. Firstly, with regard to social inclusion, one obvious consideration is how to create opportunities for everyone to contribute to and benefit from economic growth. Therefore, we need to take into account the principle of equality of opportunity when planning and implementing the process of economic development. 9. To follow the principle of equality of opportunity, we need to ensure unbiased governance and regulatory environment for businesses and people. This is to remove or reduce arbitrary restrictions and to create “competitive neutrality”. A level playing field is the first and foremost step for the prevention of income inequality. 10. Although a fair playing field is important, it is, in itself, not enough to uphold the principle of equality of opportunity. By realizing that everyone is endowed with different capacity as well as is in different social and economic contexts, supportive policy adapted for each social group is needed. For instance, as in the case of Thailand, researches indicate that broadening financial access and promoting financial literacy has significantly raised the country’s growth rate.