context, members of our external consultative committee noted that one of the key obstacles to effective contingency planning is the inability to list and consider all possible disruption scenarios. several of these participants noted that their firms were engaging consultants or other procedures to expand the number of scenarios for inclusion in their y2k contingency planning. in new york, we will be using our y2k forum next month to discuss contingency planning with a diverse set of market participants. these local market participants will provide helpful insights for the joint year 2000 council. clearly, more work is needed on contingency planning for y2k, especially at the international level. once we get beyond the early fall of this year, i believe that these efforts will begin to receive much greater focus and attention, and - - together with testing - - will dominate our discussions of y2k during 1999. closing remarks in closing, i would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to appear and submit a statement on this important issue. i hope that the efforts of the joint year 2000 council will help to make a difference in improving the state of y2k preparations in the international financial community. realistically, however, i believe that it is important to understand the limits of what financial market supervisors can accomplish, either individually or collectively. only firms themselves have the ability to address the year 2000 problems that exist within their own organizations. only firms working together can assure that local markets will function normally. supervisors and regulators cannot guarantee that disruptions will not occur. given the sheer number of organizations that are potentially at risk, it is inevitable that y2k - related disruptions will occur. today it would be impossible to predict the precise nature of these disruptions. however, we do know that financial markets have in the past survived many other serious disruptions, including blackouts, snow storms, ice storms, and floods. we will also have a very interesting case at the end of this year with the changeover to monetary union in europe. we will all be watching carefully to see whether the extent of operational problems related to this event is greater or less than expected. - 11 - i would also like to say at this point that my discussions with other members of the joint year 2000 council and with members of the external consultative committee have convinced me that successful efforts to address the y2k problem will be dependent on the credibility of those calling for action. those of us — such as members of this committee as well as others in

we have introduced performance evaluation and individual development plans in accordance with international standards. next year, the bank of thailand will start a new salary structure to be consistent with job evaluation, and to set out a clear work target and plan for each group. the most important change that occurs has been the improvement in the decision - making process. today, all bank of thailand policies have been made on the basis of sound principles and reasoning that can be explained clearly to the public. the decision - making process now evolves around decision - making by a committee rather than relying on individuals as in the past. in some of the committees, well - qualified individuals from outside the bank of thailand have been invited to be members. between each committee, emphasis has been put on the ability to communicate and exchange information. the change in this decision making process has resulted in the implementation of policies based on collective decision - making, accuracy and up to date information, most importantly, the co - ordination between the committees has helped reduce policy inconsistency. on monetary policy, following the change to a floating exchange rate system, there was a need for a new monetary policy framework. on this issue, the bank of thailand believes that the inflation targeting framework, which is being used today, is very appropriate to the present conditions and is well suited for thai economic and monetary structures. keeping inflation at a low level is an important pre - condition in maintaining economic stability of the country in the long run. most importantly, under this framework, the bank of thailand must set clear monetary policy targets, be transparent in its decision - making, and accountable for its policies. the bank of thailand monetary policy board announces its decision every six weeks, and so far has published two inflation reports. at present, the new monetary policy framework has been accepted at a certain level. more importantly, for it to be highly successful and efficient, the bank of thailand must be independent in implementing its policies. on this issue, the draft of the new bank of thailand act has stipulated this condition. even though there is a need to review the draft in order to make it more effective, the bank of thailand strongly endorses the importance of this act because it will provide for an up to date framework for the development of the thai monetary system in the future. in data dissemination, the bank of thailand has improved the process of data collection and dissemination to ensure that they are complete, correct, and expeditiously published, such as the improvement of the m3 data