institutions and their human resources into models of excellence! let us also give a round of applause to our other hardworking partners from the department of education! bigyan din po natin ng masayang palakpakan si former socioeconomic planning secretary dr. ciel habito who continues to be deeply involved in making our country a better place! palakpakan din po natin ang ibang epra representatives who are here. we are also pleased that we have with us today representatives from the chamber of thrift banks headed by executive director suzanne felix ; and the bankers association of the philippines represented by its executive director topper coronel. let us also give our banker guests a big hand for they continue to work with us closely on our economic and financial literacy programs, including our successful and award - winning “ tulong barya para sa eskwela ” project. ladies and gentlemen. “ tulong barya para sa eskwela ” generated more than p6. 5 million in cash donations for public elementary schools and savings of more than p8 million for the bangko sentral. this national lesson in saving proved beyond any doubt to our school children, that every little amount we can save will eventually add up and even be the start of wealth creation! as our slogan says : “ ang barya mahalaga, lalo na kapag pinagsama - sama. ” with the incorporation of money management into the elementary curriculum, we move to the next step and formalize the education of our children on this vital subject. indeed, today marks a high point in our continuing program to educate and inform our people on basic economic and financial concepts. again, thank you to all our partners and to all others with us today who share our commitment to economic and financial literacy programs. together, let us help filipinos manage their personal finances well, transform them into net savers and help them identify options that can ultimately lead to wealth creation. maraming salamat po sa inyong lahat! mabuhay ang mga pilipino!

dollarise to eliminate currency volatility concerns, then fiscal and private sector savings will remain important to provide the buffers needed to make our economy resilient. dollarisation will not provide a shortcut out of reforms that are needed - - in terms of utilising less direct means of influencing credit and investment behaviour to safeguard financial stability ; having more comprehensive realtime data on economic activity, including fiscal indicators ; having a larger stock of foreign reserves to cushion against shocks, and the like. dollarisation would still be premised on a target value for the exchange rate at the time of the domestic currency ’ s abandonment. this again raises the question of whether such an outcome could be achieved absent an effective capital flow management regime. there is much more than can be said on this topic and on other dimensions of the central bank ’ s role, beyond the protection of the currency. the bank has been working tirelessly in all of those dimensions : strengthening the quality of our regime for supervised financial institutions ; accelerating the modernisation of the domestic payments system ; laying foundations for use of more indirect monetary policy instruments and building more capacity for macro - prudential supervision. we realise that it is only through lasting structural reforms that there would be progress in making the monetary and financial system a stable, more resilient and a less procyclical component of our growth and development. it is fitting therefore to have this esteemed panel assembled, and i look forward to hearing their views on this important topic.