and i thank them, especially my predecessor, [ finance secretary ] ben diokno. but when the three pillars of the central bank are at stake, i am confident that this is where the monetary board would work very hard to protect the independence of the institution. please stand up, my colleagues from the monetary board. we often disagree, but we are never disagreeable. the link between central bank independence and growth the law that explicitly made the central bank independent happened 30 years ago, and we have seen the results in the performance of the economy. often, there are debates about whether managing inflation can sometimes conflict with high economic growth. 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches but theory says the predictability of policies of the central bank will also contribute to economic growth. for instance, if inflation is predictable, it makes it very easy for the government to issue longer - term bonds. those who are old enough to remember know that [ back then, ] t - bills [ treasury bills, shorter - term securities ] accounted for maybe 70 percent of the bonds issued by the government because nobody knows what inflation will be many years from now. therefore, i really thank my predecessors, the former central bank governors, but i cannot think of anybody who has contributed more than [ former governor ] say tetangco. [ we had ] 12 years of him [ as central bank governor ]. say played a special role because this was the time we became an inflation - targeting central bank1. in fact, i was asked, " is it a good idea [ to shift to inflation targeting ]? " and i said, it can go both ways : it can be a terrible disaster if the public cannot distinguish between inflation that is due to the fault of the monetary authorities and inflation that is due to things outside of the control of the central bank. it turns out, excellent communication by previous central bank governors set the tone, and it made my job rather easy. again, i thank all of them. the banking system as a pillar of economic strength we ended 2022 in a position of stability and strength. of course, our partners - the banksclearly played a very, very important role. despite covid, our banks remained strong and, indeed, because of that, as soon as the economy opened, it was raring to go, as shown by the 7. 6 - percent economic growth last year. by the way, i think we were abroad then [ when the growth figures were released

more detailed supervisory expectations on the management of environmental and social risks in the context of credit and operational risks. among these expectations are the gradual increase of loan portfolio allocation for green or sustainable activities or projects, and the consideration of environmental and social risks in the 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches banks ’ operational risk management framework. these frameworks set the essential groundwork in promoting sustainable finance and serve as anchors for succeeding bsp ’ s policy issuances. both frameworks will kick into effect by 2023. as a mobilizer, the bsp leads and inspires its supervised financial institutions to make environmentally and socially responsible business decisions. we have started integrating sustainability principles in our investment process with over usd 550 million investment in the green bond fund managed by the bank for international settlements. we are also reviewing our investment strategy to consider strategic allocation of investments toward those that espouse environmental, social, and governance principles. several philippine banks have already started participating in the growing green, social, and sustainability bond market. latest figures show that those banks have issued green, social, and sustainability bonds totalling usd 1. 15 billion and php 85. 4 billion in both foreign and local currency denominated bonds, respectively. amid the pandemic, two banks issued social bonds worth approximately php 29 billion to finance or refinance the needs of eligible micro, small, and medium enterprises. issuances by philippine companies, including banks, reached usd 4. 8 billion or 28 percent of the total aseanlabelled green, social, and sustainability bonds as of end - october 2021. climate - proofing the financial system provides growth opportunities for banks such as maybank. just recently, we witnessed the landmark climate summit unfold at cop26 in glasgow. the world ’ s financial leaders committed to fund the shift to reduce carbon emissions. private capital was also pledged through the glasgow financial alliance for net zero toward the transition to a net - zero economy. accordingly, the latest philippine energy plan targets 50 thousand megawatts of renewable energy under a clean energy scenario by 2040, or equivalent to 54. 3 percent of the total energy mix. in line with this, banks, like maybank, should start investing in sustainable financial products and services as contribution in achieving the country ’ s carbon emission reduction targets. another opportunity is the introduction of other innovative sustainable financial products to fund the post covid - 19 recovery of the msmes and agricultural sectors, which were greatly hit by the pandemic.