, stockholm, 7 december. jansson, per ( 2017 ), “ the ideological debate on monetary policy – lessons from developments in sweden ”, speech at fores, stockholm, 6 december. jansson, per ( 2018 ), “ monetary policy in less favourable times – what are the options? ”, speech at insurance sweden, stockholm, 4 december. milne, richard ( 2019 ), “ riksbank set to exit negative rates with december rise ”, article in financial times, 24 october. 14 orphanides, athanasios and john c. williams ( 2003 ), “ imperfect knowledge, inflation expectations, and monetary policy ”, nber working paper no. w9884. weiss, ittay ( 2017 ), “ nothing matters : how the invention of zero helped create modern mathematics ”, the conversation, 20 september, https : / / theconversation. com / nothing - matters - how - the - invention - of - zero - helped - create - modernmathematics - 84232 15 figure 1. inflation, 1350 - 2018 cpi, annual percentage change cpi - 100 - 100 source : the riksbank figure 2. share of employed persons in industry and mining and private service sector respectively per cent private services industry and mining note. employed persons in each sector in per cent of the total number of employed persons. source : statistics sweden 16 figure 3. development of the swedish krona, norwegian krone and new zealand dollar against the euro index, 2015 = 100 nzd nok sek source : ecb 17

6. in parallel, riding on her rapid economic growth in the past decades, mainland china now has a growing cluster of home grown mncs in a wide range of sectors. chinese companies now account for 95 of the fortune 500 companies. these mncs are now flexing their muscles in the international arena, typically starting with trade and eventually venturing into mergers and acquisitions and global portfolio investment. we can safely assume that they will take even bolder steps with the supportive policies under the “ one belt, one road ” strategy, bringing new business and business partners for other global mncs. 7. these favourable macro trends are indeed good news to the corporate treasurers. yet, in shaping strategies to capture these opportunities, there is also a realization that the business environment has become significantly more challenging after the global financial crisis. 8. the quantitative easing by the g3 economies is causing wide swings in exchange rates, asset and commodity prices which have heightened the need for hedging and risk management. the ultra - low yields of their treasuries ( for example, yields of government bonds of germany and france of maturity less than 6 years and 4 years respectively are in the negative zone ) in turn has made cash management and portfolio investment difficult. the bis central bankers ’ speeches alternative of searching for yields in emerging markets has resulted in more risks to manage. the interbank market as a source of liquidity also can no longer be taken for granted. 9. compounding the challenge of treasury management is the regulatory landscape after the global financial crisis. the capability of banks in providing funding and making market for hedging tools has become more constraint due to deleveraging and implementation of the global regulatory reform, in particular the basle iii requirements on capital and liquidity. the increased market volatility has also made the raising of funds in the capital markets more challenging. 10. to stay ahead of the game, corporate treasurers need to ensure that the treasury function can be transformed to better support international growth in order to capture the immense opportunities in asia, and at the same time sharpen the management of capital, liquidity, funding and treasury related risks in order to navigate safely in the post crisis intricate market environment. 11. so, as the agenda of this summit suggests, corporate treasury management can no longer afford to remain in a passive maintenance mode, but need to adopt a proactive and strategic mode. to use a soccer analogy, an effective corporate treasurer needs to be like a good mid - fielder