guarding against instability. the increased focus on financial stability, is closely tied to the issue of globalisation, as events in one corner of the world can have unavoidable systemic impact on the other parts of the world. promoting financial stability involves not only the promotion of macroeconomic stability, but also promoting a strong legal and regulatory framework that would support the development of deep and robust financial markets. this in turn would promote sound financial institutions and a stable overall infrastructure for the financial industry. in short, both the market and the intermediaries must be strong and efficient. against this background, it is timely that seacen centre has initiated this course to explore the nature of financial intermediation, the role of financial markets in the allocation of resources and the need for appropriate regulatory framework. as regulators, we need to understand the concepts and the basics of the working, the pricing and trading strategies of the derivatives markets and instruments, how financial entities use them in risk management, as well as their potential impact on financial system stability. but more importantly, in these two weeks, we will benefit from the presence of a number of distinguished speakers that have kindly given up their time to be with us. i hope we will use this opportunity fully. on this note, i would like to thank mr. sunil sharma, chief, asian division, imf institute, for his efforts to coordinate this course with the seacen centre and the bank of thailand. i trust that this course will be most fruitful and rewarding for all the participants, but above all that the interaction among yourselves will provide an opportunity for you to learn from one another, and strengthen the bonds of friendship that bind the works of our institutions for many years to come. ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, i now declare the seacen - imf institute course on financial markets and new financial instruments open and wish everyone of you success in your deliberation, success in your career, and most importantly, that you would take back with you pleasant memories of your brief stay in thailand. thank you.

other hand, the snb employs esg criteria in the management of its equity portfolio via a selective exclusion policy. since 2013, it has refrained from acquiring shares in companies whose products or production methods seriously violate ethical principles – notably, firms that produce internationally condemned weapons, seriously violate fundamental human rights or systematically cause severe environmental damage. such exclusions, which also apply to our corporate bond portfolio, enable the snb to align its asset management with the fundamental values and norms of our country. how does the snb go about identifying the companies to be excluded? it follows a clear and structured process, in which it draws on the knowledge of external experts. with respect to the environment and human rights, we regularly evaluate our investments in a two - step process. first, an expert consultancy collects all publicly available information and then draws up a warning list containing high - risk companies ( i. e. companies that most likely meet our exclusion criteria ). in a second step, another specialist firm evaluates these allegations in detail and prepares a full report for each high - risk company, accompanied by a recommendation. the final decision on whether or not to exclude a company is taken by the snb. in addition, the snb exercises its voting rights for a portion of the shares in its portfolio. it focuses on aspects relating to good governance. good governance contributes to the positive development of a company, which ultimately improves the return on our investments. ladies and gentlemen, we are convinced that our approach to managing our foreign exchange reserves is appropriate given the requirements of our mandate. more active management in the environmental field would severely limit our investment options. it could further accentuate the fluctuations in our results – fluctuations that are already significant as our balance sheet has to absorb exchange rate movements without recourse to hedging. besides, it is not clear that an investment strategy based on esg criteria would generate superior risk - page 10 / 12 adjusted returns. 13 in addition to this, given the particular profile and size of our portfolio, a more targeted selection of our investments would increase concentration risk, which would compromise our neutrality in the markets and hinder the implementation of monetary policy. our approach is therefore the result of a careful weighing - up of interests. the benefits of more active management in terms of superior returns, risk management and climate risk impact are still highly uncertain. on the other hand, the costs of such an approach are very considerable indeed, particularly with regard to market neutrality, concentration, and – above all