one with integrated services and management capabilities. especially since the return to the motherland, the local financial industry has experienced robust development along with strong gains in the domestic economy ; the active promotion of appropriate economic diversification and regional cooperation by the macao government. indeed, with the high degree of openness, macao ’ s economy and finance are susceptible to external shocks and volatilities of global financial markets. over the last twenty five years, macao ’ s financial sector in its development process experienced challenges one after another, for example, currency devaluation storms triggered by the change in floating exchange regime for the thai baht in 1997 ; global economic slowdown driven by tech - bubble burst in 2000 ; sars outbreak in neighbouring jurisdictions in 2003 ; and us - subprime - led global financial crisis which started in 2007. nevertheless, with the strong support and joint efforts of all parties, the financial industry has managed to overcome such difficulties as the local economy develops. as at the end of may this year, the npl and car ratios of the banking sector were 0. 1 % and 15. 5 % respectively ; profitability was at all - time high. meanwhile, in terms of premiums and operating results, the insurance sector has also made impressive achievements. bis central bankers ’ speeches apart from financial supervision, amcm has been vested with the responsibility to manage the foreign exchange reserves of macao. since the establishment of the fiscal reserve regime, amcm has been assigned by the relevant legislation the responsibility of fiscal reserve management. in managing the fiscal reserve and exchange reserves, amcm has observed relevant legal requirements while upholding safety and prudent management principles. furthermore, amcm has diversified asset allocation and optimized investment portfolios on a reasonable basis of balancing risks and capital preservation. it goes without saying that the effort and hard work of every department of amcm are indispensable. i would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of amcm, to express my candid appreciation for the dedication of all our colleagues, present or retired, including those who returned to portugal after their retirement. we are grateful to secretary tam for his guidance, support and trust. we would also like to thank the audit committee and the advisory council. as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of amcm this evening, it also marks the beginning of a new phase. i sincerely hope that in the coming years, all my colleagues at amcm will continue to cope with the increasingly complex environment

start saving up now for the higher future tax payments? this is a central question in economic policy, but we ’ re basically without a clue when it comes to finding out what applies. constant focus on the relevance of the statistics released is a challenge for the producers of statistics. there will always be demand for more statistics, but then reality and budget constraints kick in. consequently, it may be necessary to cut down on some statistical areas in order to increase focus on other and more relevant statistics. it is quite a challenge to become constantly better at optimising the use of the available data sources. a case in point is the challenges of registering the growing output in the services sector in a modern economy and capturing internet activity. statistics must be accurate and preferably timely in order to be useful. crises, especially financial crises, often erupt suddenly and sometimes surprisingly. this is a great challenge for economic statistics as they are only available with a certain lag. moreover, the crisis we have just been through was way out on the periphery of the probability distribution. we have not seen the financial markets react as dramatically and globally over the last 60 years as they did during the most recent financial crisis. this undermines the belief that we could have predicted the crisis if only we had had more statistics. for an unprecedented situation it is, of course, no use analysing historical data, believing that you can predict the crisis. the problem was more likely our failure to understand fully the available data. we must become better at understanding the interplay between the financial and real sides of the economy. a lot of research seeks to incorporate the financial sector into theoretical models of the real economy. and we have a long way to go in this area as well. consequently, there is no risk that statisticians will be out of a job right away! thank you for your attention.