jorgovanka tabakovic : people, knowledge and trust are the key foundations of states and all institutions, particularly banking speech by dr jorgovanka tabakovic, governor of the national bank of serbia, on the occasion of marking the 100th anniversary of the association of serbian banks, belgrade, 4 december 2021. * * * esteemed ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, it is a pleasure and honour to greet you, from the position of the governor, on behalf of the national bank of serbia and in my personal name, on the day when the association of serbian banks is marking an entire century since its founding. your 100th anniversary deserves respect in historical terms as it attests to the durability of one of the oldest associations of banks in europe. the spirit of history commits us, just as it commits the national bank of serbia, which, with its 137 - year - long tradition ranks among the oldest central banks in the world. if we take a retrospective view of our institution from its very inception to date, we shall unavoidably discern that the rising complexity of economic relations called for increasing authorities of the national bank of serbia, whereby we have become part of the group of central banks with the largest number of competences. the traditional functions of preserving monetary and financial stability were complemented with the supervision of financial institutions and financial education. transparency is today one of important characteristics of central bank functioning. our objective is to ensure that our decisions are understood and that we are the service of our citizens that they deserve. we are clear in our attitude and decisive in our intention not to allow any speculations that could sway the exchange rate into a direction that would be undesirable for our citizens and businesses, and i believe this is the warranty of our successful duration. today, when we talk about history, i cannot but mention that it also implies the obligation and responsibility in terms of constant development and advancement of professionalism, expertise and true values. of course, the notion of true values depends on who defines them. i am certain that we all agree that people, knowledge and trust are the key foundations of states and all institutions, particularly banking. trust is a house of cards, destroyed by a tad of doubt, while the fortresses of doubt are made of the strongest material – prejudices and fear. esteemed ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, we have learned through history that financial crises have often broken out as the crises of trust and a disconne

right policies for the sector. secondly, the strategy for agricultural modernisation should involve helping smallholder farmers to raise their yields and to produce more output for the market. this strategy can support inclusive growth and reduce poverty by raising farm incomes. agricultural modernisation should not involve displacing smallholders to make room for large scale mechanised farming. this would be extremely regressive and, given that large farms have much lower yields per acre than small farms, lead to lower agricultural output. thirdly, the first step on the road to the modernisation of smallholder farming should be to encourage smallholders to adopt good agricultural practises, which can enable substantial gains in yields even without the use of high input farm technology. this should be the priority of the agricultural extension services. government should also strengthen the rural feeder road network and strive to enhance the security of land rights for farmers. fourthly, government spending on agriculture should be focussed on the provision of public goods and services, such as extension services which provide technical advice to farmers. scarce public resources should not be used to subsidise inputs which can be provided by the market. the evidence for high social rates of return to the provision of public goods and services for agriculture is surveyed in enrique blanco armas, camilo gomez osorio, blanca moreno dodson and dwi endah abriningrum ( 2012 ), “ agriculture public spending and growth in indonesia ”, policy research working paper 5977 world bank. bis central bankers ’ speeches