learning benefit those in the countryside as well. ladies and gentlemen. i cannot overemphasize the importance of ensuring the success and sustainability of our economic and financial education program. if we are effective in teaching saving and money management to our 12 million public school pupils, we would be on track to raise a new generation of financially - independent filipinos who will lift our country from its traditional deficit - spending mode. if we are able to educate our public to recognize legitimate investment vehicles from pyramiding scams, then we can truly harness public savings to finance productive ventures. if we are able to inspire filipinos to save, invest more, or to become entrepreneurs, then we have done our country a great service in terms of sustaining its growth and development. i hope therefore that we will continue to work together on our economic and financial education program. finally, i congratulate the eisg headed by marah angka and her staff for finally getting the eflc off the ground. let us give them our full support and cooperation. and so, ladies and gentlemen, let us now begin our tour of the eflc. mabuhay ang eflc! mabuhay ang bangko sentral ng pilipinas! thank you all and enjoy the rest of the day.

amando m tetangco, jr : crafting a regional agenda for child & youth finance speech by mr amando m tetangco, jr, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( the central bank of the philippines ), at the asia and the pacific regional meeting on “ child & youth finance ”, manila, 4 december 2012. * * * secretary imelda nicolas of the commission on filipinos overseas ; cyfi managing director jeroo billimoria ; distinguished resource persons ; child and youth representatives callista ( 12 years old ) from indonesia, sam ( 11 years old ) from uganda and jessie from the philippines ; fellow advocates of financial inclusion from asia and the pacific ; our media partners ; special guests, good morning and welcome to the bangko sentral ng pilipinas, the philippine central bank. we at the bangko sentral are happy that you have come to the philippines to discuss child and youth finance in asia and the pacific – where it is said roughly 60 % of the world ’ s youth reside. here in the philippines alone, about half of our total population are young. it is important for our country therefore to ensure that our youth are given proper basic education that will allow them to grow into responsible self - reliant adults. indeed, to us at the bangko sentral, finance education is for everyone. thus, when a 2006 survey indicated that less than 5 % of the filipino youth save regularly, we made a decision to place child and youth finance education high on our agenda. this is important to us. after all, we have roughly 25 million students in both elementary and high school levels. and as philippine national hero dr. jose rizal once said “ ang kabataan ang pag - asa ng ating bayan. ” the youth are the hope of our future. furthermore, the 2006 citibank financial quotient survey indicated that filipinos have a financial intelligence quotient of 47. 8 points, less than half the maximum score of 100. while there were other countries that had lower scores, the result was disturbing for us nevertheless. it was an indication that over the long term our countrymen may miss out on the opportunities that development brings. or worse, be unprepared to weather financial uncertainties that may arise in the future. these results provided us with the strong resolve to broaden and deepen our financial education program. since then, the bangko sentral ng pilip