moving along with the market at the same speed. some move faster than the market. they are the super - performers and stand to gain more. some move at the same rate as the market. they attain a gain more or less equivalent to the market performance. there is no problem about both these categories. that is because they have the capacity to look after themselves. the problem arises in the case of people who are unable to move forward at the speed of the market. they become laggards and are left out. hence, there should be a special strategy to bring them to the mainstream of economic life. the normal strategy that had been adopted to address this issue has been the introduction of safety nets to capture them before they make a free fall to the ground. the safety nets so introduced have taken different forms depending on the era or the country. about five decades ago, the safety nets took the form of providing outright grants to the poor people. the objective of the grants was to provide some relief to them, so that they could at least meet their food requirements. the weaknesses in this type of strategies are well known. it encourages poor people to remain in the safety net forever. they have no incentive to move out of the net, because moving out would mean their having to work hard for a living. if at least the basic requirement of food is provided free of charge, then why would anyone want to work for the same? economists have long named this problem “ moral hazard ” problem. this problem simply says that, when one helps another, the person being helped does not have the incentive to adopt even the minimum safety measures. as a result, he increases the chance of the occurrence of the event which the helper desires to prevent. the consequence is that it imposes an additional burden on the helper. as a result, neither the helper nor the helped would be able to get out of the vicious circle in which the both parties would get trapped. the moral hazard behavior by people who get free goods is not a new phenomenon. it had been known for many centuries. the buddha has preached in one of the discourses titled chakka vatti seehanaada sutta how the king of a country was duped by the people who were given free capital to commence self - employment projects. according to this sutta, the people of a certain country had resorted, in large numbers, to theft and robbery. the king had consulted his wise advisors to find how to eliminate it

maintaining financial system stability as well as to prevent international systemic risk from emerging, mutual cooperation and coordination have become increasingly essential among central banks in the region. in this context, a forum called emeap, composed of central banks in the east asia and pacific region, was established in 1991. in this forum, member central banks have been exchanging views and information regarding economic, financial market, and foreign exchange market developments. they have also been studying ways to make improvements in such areas as financial markets, settlement systems, and bank supervisory methods. conclusion in closing, let me briefly touch upon japan ’ s role in asia. given the size of its economic presence and close relations with countries in the asian region, japan should make an appropriate contribution to regional development. to this end, first of all, japan itself must aggressively implement structural reform to realize robust economic fundamentals. at the same time, japan should promote further opening and improvement of its domestic markets to contribute to the efficient and fair allocation of world resources. particularly in financial markets, various measures for improvement have been effected. for example, in the benchmark government bond market, the maturity of bonds has been diversified and the withholding tax on non - residents lifted. we should continue such efforts to make domestic markets more attractive for overseas investors. through such efforts, i believe and sincerely hope that countries both within and outside the asian region will come to have greater confidence in japan, which, in turn, will contribute to closer and stronger cooperation in asia.