the capacity to renew regulatory frameworks and institutions to enable the country to embrace change is an important part of this openness. obstacles to ideas, goods, services and production factors moving freely across borders have declined during the 1990s, partly thanks to our membership of the eu, and it is reasonable to assume that this has had a positive effect on factor productivity. for a small country like sweden, internationalisation and increased international competition are expected to lead to particularly favourable productivity effects. various measures indicate a marked increase in the degree of internationalisation in the swedish economy. both the import share and the export share have risen, which means that trade and the degree of specialisation have increased. moreover, foreign direct investment in sweden has multiplied and it is mainly direct investment from eu countries that has increased. although the increasing international openness has been pronounced in sweden with, for instance, a rise of 13 percentage points in the export share of gdp during the 1990s, there are several smaller countries that have shown an even more rapid increase in the equivalent figures. this reflects the globalised world in which we live, and does not reduce the significance of openness for the development of factor productivity. internationalisation has thus contributed to ensuring that an increasing percentage of trade and industry is exposed to competition. increased competition means that companies must become more efficient and cost - conscious, which in turn should have a positive effect on productivity. in addition, a new competition act came into force in sweden in 1993, containing an expressed prohibition of co - operation between companies that limits competition, as well as a ban on the misuse of a dominant position. there has also been deregulation in a number of areas. for instance, government monopolies have been abolished and freedom to establish businesses has been introduced with regard to, for instance, transport, communication and energy. changed conditions for competition thus affect productivity growth, but they can also affect price trends in a more direct manner. despite the fact that we gained much tougher competition legislation in 1993, it appears that developments in this field are moving rather slowly. swedish prices continue to lie at a higher level than those in other countries in most areas, without this being fully explained by differences in vat rates and wages. increased competition could contribute to a convergence of price levels. high food prices swedish food prices were, for instance, more than 18 per cent higher than the average prices in the eu in 1998. the difference has declined somewhat since then, but apparently at a very slow rate.

been ranked by various organizations to be among the top two universities in the fields of information and technology management, school of computer science, artificial intelligence, and information systems. when i was still secretary of the department of budget and management, i had the opportunity to work with cmu – australia when we identified and awarded scholarships to very promising dbm employees. and in a similar context, i am glad to know that the relationship between the bangko sentral ng pilipinas and the cmu – australia has taken root over a decade ago, and has produced five master ’ s degree graduates in the fields of public policy and management and in information technology. today, the bsp and cmu - australia collaborate on another milestone. through it, we will not just 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches enhance the knowledge and skills of its employees, but also benefit from the guidance of the cmu - australia on how we can improve or develop the needed systems and tools to ensure that the bsp ’ s digital transformation journey will be a productive and a successful one. with this partnership, it is also my hope that through the memorandum of understanding, we can strengthen the collaboration of the bsp and the academic community, both here and abroad. mabuhay ang carnegie mellon university – australia! mabuhay ang bangko sentral ng pilipinas! salamat po at magandang umaga sa inyong lahat! 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches