security motives, government inward - oriented policies can be costly, distortionary and of limited efficiency. as an alternative, we should think of more ways to improve international cooperation, not impede it. climate change mitigation and adaptation or sustainable development goals are examples of global public goods where governments can achieve important economic and social goals through global cooperation, and can easily fail without it. when talking about lessons from recent past, let me, for a moment, go further back in history, and use the opportunity of being here in dubrovnik, to draw some parallels with the medieval republic of ragusa ( the old name of the city - state of dubrovnik ). the history of old ragusa was also not immune to external shocks, such as wars, natural disasters ( earthquakes ), trade interruptions and epidemics. in fact, in the medieval times, the dangers were far more serious than those we are facing today. in addition to conflicts, there was a constant threat of food shortages and diseases. so, navigating in choppy waters was exactly what the policymakers of ragusa were doing so successfully for centuries – both literally and metaphorically. literally, by rightly recognizing shipbuilding as their strategic industry and subsidizing it for centuries, they became one of the most prominent shipbuilders of their time. and metaphorically, they were indeed navigating well their economic development and maintained their independence amidst limited natural resources and practically no military power, and surrounded by hostilities from all sides ( the ottomans, venice ). they achieved that through resilience, adaptability and cooperation. in medieval europe trade interruptions were frequent so the government of dubrovnik tried to contain risks from food shortages by maintaining large reserves of grain and other commodities. furthermore, they were the global frontrunners in implementing disease prevention measures, including setting up the world's first quarantine station, which was located right on the site of our concert last night. finally, they realized that wise government policies in the field of public education, health and social welfare were instrumental in preventing social unrest in the context of frequent external shocks. at the same time, historical evidence suggests that ragusa practiced a very prudent policy with respect to 3 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches state finances, minting of currency, and market - encouraging regulations. as for cooperation, despite hostile surroundings, dubrovnik's military expenditures were minimal, as they instead were focusing on diplomatic efforts

boris vuji : resilience, adaptability, and cooperation speech by mr boris vuji, governor of the croatian national bank, at the conference " policymaking in choppy waters : fostering resilience in central, eastern and southeastern europe ( cesee ) ", dubrovnik, 3 june 2023. * * * dear prime minister andrej plenkovi, dear managing director kristalina georgieva, dear ministers, governors, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning to everyone. after a beautiful evening yesterday, that served as a perfect introduction to our gathering, it is my great pleasure to also welcome you to the official part of our conference. as you know, the conference is jointly organized by croatian national bank and the international monetary fund. this is the third biennial conference that we started in 2017, when the md of the fund was my current boss in the governing council of the ecb. at that time neither of us knew that today we would be sitting together in the ecb governing council. that much about the predictability, which has poorly served us on a much grander scale over the last years. so, i would first like to express my sincere gratitude to our imf colleagues for excellent cooperation during the preparation of the conference. we are both happy that we have managed to gather top policy makers and speakers at this beautiful location to talk about very topical issues. my special welcome goes to the imf's managing director kristalina georgieva - it is indeed our great privilege to have you on the conference and to host you for the first time here in dubrovnik. i also thank our prime minister plenkovi for being with us today to open this event and to set the stage for fruitful discussions that will follow. finally, i want to thank all of you for coming here to enrich the conference by sharing your great knowledge and experience with us. last time we gathered here in dubrovnik, on a similar occasion, was in 2019. we had to skip 2021, for the known reason, namely one of the shocks that hit us in this short period of time – the pandemic. i'm happy that we are back here in a better shape than in spring of 2020 most believed we would be at this moment in time. and while the main objective of the conference has not changed much – that is to discuss policies needed to enable sustainable growth and prosperity in central eastern and southeastern europe – the underlying circumstances at that