amando m tetangco, jr : microentrepreneurial success in the philippines speech by mr amando m tetangco, jr, governor of the central bank of the philippines ( bangko sentral ng pilipinas ), at the microentrepreneur of the year ( moty ) awards 2008 launch, manila, 15 may 2008. * * * fellow workers and advocates in microfinance, special guests, good morning. on behalf of the members of the monetary board, i welcome all of you to the bangko sentral ng pilipinas for the launching of the 2008 microentrepreneur of the year awards. ladies and gentlemen. this is the sixth year we are mounting this search for the best microentrepreneurs in our country. through all these years, i have felt that the role of the judges in selecting the winners have become increasingly difficult. don ’ t get me wrong ; i am not complaining! the difficulty lies in the fact that there are now so many inspiring success stories in the microfinance sector to choose from. this tells me that we are successful in providing a nurturing environment for microenterpreneurs. today is therefore a happy occasion as friends and colleagues involved in microfinance come together once again. let us therefore take this opportunity to thank our partners for making the moty a muchanticipated event. friends, let us give a big hand to citi philippines and citi foundation under mr. sanjiv vohra, the microfinance council under mr. rollie victoria and mr. ed garcia, as well as the members of the national selection committee. during the first five years of the moty, we met exceptional microentrepreneurs who proved access to responsive microfinance services can empower them to break out of poverty and build a better life for themselves, their families, and even their communities. we are happy that our past winners continue to shine and to be a source of inspiration. for instance, 2004 winner leticia rosas, a handloom weaver from marinduque, had the unique experience to address a big crowd of microfinance practitioners in the historic halls of the malacanan palace. 2006 winner jennilyn antonio, a former factory worker turned peanut butter manufacturer, now supplies sm supermarkets, the country ’ s largest retail chain. we of course thank one of our committed judges, mrs. tessie sy -

, immediately after the financial crisis, emerging economies also adopted expansionary policy measures, and some “ excesses ” in business fixed investment and lending may have emerged during that process. second, while economic activity in the united states and europe has been recovering, concern has been raised that capital inflow into emerging economies may reverse its course. under such circumstances, triggered by speculation that the fed is likely to scale down the pace of its asset purchases, financial markets in the emerging economies have recently become instable, with some, mainly current - account deficit countries, experiencing depreciation in their currencies. such instability in financial markets might have adverse effects on the real economy through tightening financial conditions and deteriorating business and household sentiment, and this requires attention. having said that, in my view, the likelihood that the current situation will become one similar to the asian currency crisis in 1997 – 98 seems marginal. the asian crisis became widespread due mainly to vulnerability of the banking systems in asian countries. by contrast, the current situation is limited to market risk, as exemplified by the heightening of market volatility. moreover, from the perspective of safety nets, those economies have accumulated substantial foreign reserves and backstops were put in place, such as the chiang mai initiative – a swap agreement network to make short - term foreign currencies available among participating countries. owing to these developments, emerging economies have become more resilient against possible capital outflows. in addition, as seen at the g20 meeting and meetings at the bank for international settlement, frameworks are now in place that enable advanced economies and emerging economies to have direct discussions. to sum up, while each country or region has its own risk factors, it is expected that overseas economies – most notably the u. s. economy – will generally start picking up gradually. under such circumstances, exports and production in japan are expected to increase. ii. basic thinking behind qqe i would now like to explain the thinking behind the qqe that the bank is currently pursuing. in april, the bank, with a view to achieving the price stability target of 2 percent in terms of the year - on - year rate of change in the consumer price index at the earliest possible time, with a time horizon of about two years, introduced a new policy of “ quantitative and qualitative monetary policy ” ( qqe ). in this policy, the main operating target for money market operations was changed from the short - term interest rate to the monetary