task. it requires the ability to assess the quality and quantity of the skills available among the population, determine and anticipate those demanded by the labour market and implement efficient strategies to maintain and update them throughout workers ’ lifecycles. data on available skills is, however, of poor quality and the demand for skills, present and future, is often a black box. in developing countries challenges are even greater as access to basic - level schooling remains an issue for a sizeable share of the population : action will have to be taken to carefully balance equal access to and completion of lower - secondary education with further learning both for school - age children and for adults. these strategies require coherence and co - operation among schools, the private sector and social partners : the world of learning and the world of work must be linked. formal education attainments do indeed display high complementarity with on - the - job training and other initiatives intended to increase the coherence between the supply and the demand of skills. human capital investment is key not only to boosting productivity but also to tackling inequality and promoting social mobility, enhancing social capital and maintaining social cohesion. adults with low levels of education have a higher likelihood of reporting poor health and a lower participation in community groups and organizations. at the same time, more qualified adults are much more likely to feel that they have a voice that can make a difference in social and political life. these results are consistent across a wide range of countries, confirming that skills have a profound relationship with economic and social outcomes in many different contexts and institutions. investing in skills is far less costly, in the long run, than paying the price of poorer health, lower incomes, unemployment and social exclusion that could lead to political aversion towards technological advancement and progress. finally, i would like to stress the important role of international cooperation in the management of the long and uncertain transition phase. an institutional synoptic design encompassing all policies ( fiscal and welfare, antitrust, and structural reforms ) is highly desirable. greater attention must be paid to the coordination of policies at a supranational level and to the sharing of data and statistics in order to correctly measure and interpret the economic variables as well as the channels through which the effects of these policies will meet their intended target. let me conclude by thanking the organizers – emanuela ciapanna, fabrizio colonna and paolo sestito from the bank of italy as well as ciro avitabile

##ity assistance has been a classic and impeccable exercise of long - standing central banking doctrine, but it has been on a scale for which there are few precedents in history. to an extent, the need for such liquidity is the mirror image of the scale on which the international market was previously tapped. indeed, it has often been remarked that membership of the euro area facilitated bank access to foreign funds. but over - borrowing by european banking systems was not limited to the euro area. and euro membership has provided the safety net on the way down. the european central bank has risen to this challenge and the eurosystem has extended credit to irish banks on an unprecedented scale. governed by a detailed legal framework, the lending has been carried out either through normal eurosystem operations ( to the extent that the banks concerned had collateral satisfying the specific requirements, both as to assured and rated quality, and as to marketability, defined by the ecb ) or directly from the central bank of ireland. the direct lending by the central bank of ireland is of course carried out with the prior knowledge and approval of the ecb : the suggestion sometimes heard, that the ecb might be about to cut - off the irish banks, is very wide of the mark. they hope, as we all do, for faster progress towards restoring the confidence of the market in ireland and its banks ; but that is a very different matter. all central bank lending to banks is collateralised, whether by other financial assets of the banks ( with appropriate haircuts ), or by government guarantees. but inasmuch as almost all of the central bank lending has gone to repay bank liabilities that were already guaranteed, this process has not increased overall government obligations. ( it ’ s important not to doublecount here ). indeed, the quantum of irish government guaranteed bank liabilities has diminished substantially over the past year. * * * the process of rolling back the excesses that have marred the great advances made by the irish economy over the past two decades has heightened uncertainty. in order to underpin a vigorous economic recovery, risk must be reduced, not least by ensuring the conventional elements of fiscal discipline and cost competitiveness, but also through an intensified process of clarifying and crystallising the position of the banks and reducing their exposure. the eu - imf programme funding provides a window of time in which to help restore the fundamentals and reduce the risks. bis central bankers ’ speeches