##lity around the world. notwithstanding the turbulence of the global economy, asian economies had proven to be resilient in the face of negative external developments, with favourable macroeconomic performance and well - maintained stability during the past period, thanks to the region ’ s flexible policy framework, robust financial system, and improved risk management as lessons had been learned from the crisis of 1997. making headway towards sustainable growth ladies and gentlemen, the success of asian economies in weathering the global financial crisis is certainly commendable. but it would be a mistake to be lulled into complacency by this success of short - term volatility management. in particular, there remain important long - term challenges to the sustainability of growth in asia. indeed, latest economic indicators already pointed to a bis central bankers ’ speeches less upbeat growth trajectory of the asian region including china. the apparent slowdown in asia, despite gradual improvement of the advanced economies, lends support to the idea that asia also has its own structural bottleneck issues to deal with. the time is ripe for all parties involved to look beyond short - term fluctuations and give serious consideration to longer - term structural issues that are holding back asian potential growth. this is the second topic of my talk today : what can asia do to sustain its high pace of growth in the post - crisis world? since the onset of the global financial crisis, most policy responses in emerging markets have been focused on demand - side management, through monetary or fiscal policy stimulus. but boosting demand alone could only get us thus far. the real lift of potential growth of the economy must essentially come from supply - side progress. this refers to either the more abundance or the better use of capital and labor inputs in the economy. although asia ’ s potential growth remains higher than in other regions, recent studies pointed to a possible reduction in trend growth since the 2008 financial crisis. 1 in my reading of anecdotal evidence and through policy discussions, two common drags to long - term growth among emerging asia are the labor shortage and the decline in productivity growth. let me explain the labor market issue using the case of thailand as an example. the problem of labor shortage has been deep rooted in thailand for many years but has not received much attention until recently. this could be partly due to favorable economic expansion during the past years that has masked this problem and also because of the ability on the part of firms to employ immigrant workers. but now with protracted external demand slowdown coinci

##s business activities and risk appetite in order to provide an adequate internal control system to monitor and mitigate risks. risk - based supervision represents yet another endeavor to tackle the effectiveness of risk management of financial institutions as transaction testing may no longer be an effective approach to examine the ever - more complex financial institutions of today. i must therefore, commend apec for this initiative in bringing together bank supervisors across countries within the asia and the pacific region to learn and to share views and wisdom on this very important topic. it is my hope that all of you would take this opportunity to learn as much as possible from our highly experienced and knowledgeable speakers as well as from one another on the key issues relating to credit risks, but most importantly to reinforce supervision standards in order to enhance financial stability under your jurisdiction. ladies and gentlemen, i am pleased to declare open the apec financial regulators training initiative regional program on credit risk analysis. i wish you every success and a pleasant stay in bangkok. thank you.